Cris, 

As an addendum to my previous response to this, according to its 
Amazon product description (presumably written by its publisher or 
editor) the anthology claims to challenge ‘received accounts of modern 
and contemporary British and Irish poetry’ by including perceived 
underrepresented postmodern poets who have ‘never before been 
represented in this type of collection’. 

The type of collection it is, is presumably a canon representing one 
as ‘it features ample selections from canonical poets including W.H. 
Auden, Basil Bunting, T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney,’ etc. The anthology 
also claims to provide ‘an unprecedented, inclusive portrait of the 
century's poetry in Britain and Ireland’.

Also, its annotator N. Dorwood, says in his Amazon review of it that it 
is ‘a landmark book’, and Tony Frazer says, in his Amazon review, it ‘is 
significant precisely because it cuts across existing preconceptions of 
what is important in 20th Century British and Irish Poetry’.

So it’s not setting out to be as unassuming as you suggest.

Dave





On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 09:15:48 -0500, cris cheek 
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>every anthology is incomplete
>
>
>
>any pretension to completion must be viewed with derision
>
>
>
>
>the Tuma anthology was just a slice, cut from particular angles in
>particular lights, intended to spark discussion
>
>
>
>
>;=)
>
>
>
>
>cris
>
>
>
>ps thanks for the direct quotation Peter.
>
>
>
>
>
>On Feb 2, 2010, at 9:02 AM, David Lace wrote:
>
>> I agree. His absense, however unavoidable, does make the 
anthology
>> look incomplete.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 13:28:08 +0000, JAMIE MCK
>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> It's very heartening to see this statement of solidarity, and I only
>> wish it had been more widely circulated.
>> Even if, as Giles said, for the grandees of the press it might have
>> had
>> little significance, for the purposes of the anthology and its readers
>> Prynne's absence was a resounding one.
>> The rhetoric doesn't seem to me so much Churchillian as 
scrupulously
>> considered - in both passages that Peter quotes. It would be good 
to
>> see the whole letter.
>> Jamie
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Peter Riley <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Tuesday, 2 February, 2010 9:53:01
>> Subject: Re: Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>> Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
>>
>> JHP circulated a letter to a senior editor at OUP (NY) at the time,
>> explaining his reasons for not wishing to be in the anthology. He
>> spoke
>> first of his dislike of educational anthologies as such, "because
>> of the
>> enrollment of a poet's work into a teaching apparatus" [i.e., a
>> programmed presentation]  which "must interfere with a vital aspect 
of
>> personally free reading and discovery...."    He went on:
>>
>> "But overriding each and every such consideration in this case is the
>> aspect that this book is to be published by Oxford University Press. I
>> know very well that the American branch of this imprint is
>> virtually an
>> independent operation, but it carries and trades under an illustrious
>> name. That name must now in the field of contemporary British 
poetry
>> and its publication by considered infamous."....
>>
>> PR
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2 Feb 2010, at 09:26, GILES GOODLAND wrote:
>> I very much doubt that can be true. I have been in meetings with
>> senior
>> OUP staff who have never even heard of Bloodaxe or Carcanet. 
Whether
>> Prynne appeared in an anthology or not, would not appear on their
>> radar--a fact which I am sure Prynne would foresee.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: John Goodby <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Tuesday, 2 February, 2010 9:19:56
>> Subject: Re: Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>> Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
>>
>> Wasn't Jeremy Prynne's refusal to be included something to do with 
the
>> fact that Oxford UP, the publishers of the anthology, had recently
>> abolished their poetry list en bloc? I was under the impression
>> that it
>> was a protest against their act of vandalism.
>>
>> All best,
>>
>> JOhn
>> ---- Geraldine Monk <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> In any case this is a very old review written almost as soon as the
>> book was out.  I wonder  David (hello) if you are  misreading 2001 
for
>> 2010?
>>> G.
>>>   ----- Original Message -----
>>>   From: cris cheek
>>>   To: [log in to unmask]
>>>   Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 10:40 PM
>>>   Subject: Re: Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>> Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
>>>
>>>
>>>   In fact there's a mention of it at the end of Tuma's intro to the
>> Anthology itself.
>>>
>>>
>>>   xx
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   cris
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   On Feb 1, 2010, at 4:06 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>     Yes, Cris, that's it ...
>>>
>>>
>>>     On 1 February 2010 20:03, cris cheek <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:
>>>
>>>       Hi David,
>>>
>>>
>>>       that is my understanding of what happened too. In fact i
>> remember being told that there had been extensive correspondence
>> trying to persuade Jeremy to have his work represented but that 
Jeremy
>> had said (at that time) that he was tired of anthologies . . . or
>> something along those lines.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>       xxx
>>>
>>>
>>>       cris
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>       On Feb 1, 2010, at 2:54 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>         I might be wrong on this, but I vaguely recall Keith Tuma
>>> (then
>> on this list) saying that Prynne declined an invitation for inclusion.
>>>
>>>
>>>         On 1 February 2010 14:26, David Lace <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:
>>>
>>>           Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>> Anthology of
>>>           Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry (Paperback)
>>>
>>>
>>>           Quote:
>>>
>>>           "This isn't "critical pluralism". It's an attempt to
>>> canonize a
>> postmodern
>>>           clique by juxtaposing their work with the likes of Seamus
>> Heaney.
>>>
>>>           Moreover, it isn't even a believeable anthology from a
>> postmodern
>>>           standpoint. Where's J. H. Prynne? Excluding him is like
>>> leaving
>> John
>>>           Ashbery out of an anthology of modern American poetry."
>>>
>>>
>>>           http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anthology-Twentieth-Century-
>>> British-
>> Irish-
>>>           Poetry/dp/019512894X
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>         --
>>>         David Bircumshaw
>>>         "A window./Big enough to hold screams/
>>>         You say are poems" - DMeltzer
>>>         Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>>>         http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
>>>         The Animal
>> Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>>>         Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>>>         twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
>>>         blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     --
>>>     David Bircumshaw
>>>     "A window./Big enough to hold screams/
>>>     You say are poems" - DMeltzer
>>>     Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>>>     http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
>>>     The Animal
>> Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>>>     Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>>>     twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
>>>     blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ---------
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>   No virus found in this incoming message.
>>>   Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>>>   Version: 8.5.432 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2661 - Release Date:
>> 02/01/10 07:35:00