From Publishers Weekly
Drawing from the 52 volumes published in the Pocket Poets series since 1956, this selection provides a handy sampler of many of the prominent avant-garde and leftist poets of the post-WWII era. Included are poems from Beat staples such as Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Patchen, Jack Kerouac and Ferlinghetti himself. The anthology also demonstrates, however, the beyond-Beat breadth of the series, with works from William Carlos Williams, Robert Bly, Frank O'Hara, Denise Levertov and others. Arranged chronologically by publication, the collection offers a liberal dose of accomplished post-Beat writers, e.g., Diane di Prima and Anne Waldman, who claim roots in the tradition?although much of the more recent work seems simply derivative. The series' extensive international scope is highlighted in poems culled from German, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Nicaraguan and Spanish poets, including Neruda and Garcia Lorca. All in all, this is a lively, if slightly uneven, retrospective. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Celebrating 40 years of publishing, this anthology contains selections from all 52 volumes of the "Pocket Poets" series. Opening with Ferlinghetti's self-published "Pictures of the Gone World," the book moves on to familiar names (Denise Levertov, Kenneth Patchen, Robert Duncan) as well as lesser-known poets (La Loca, Charles Upton, Adam Cornford). Poets appear without biographical notes and create a dialog united by anticapitalist sentiments that transcend continents and languages. One juxtaposition worthy of note is Ginsberg's "Howl" beside Marie Ponsot's tight, rhyming poems. As Ferlinghetti admits, his aim was "to discover," and this retrospective proves "how right or how important (or how trivial) the editor's choices were." The publisher also welcomed artists established in other disciplines, printing works that other publishers shied away from: William Carlos Williams's hard-to-categorize meditations, poems by Malcolm Lowry and Pier Paolo Pasolini. This collection makes an essential statement and is recommended for all poetry collections.Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New YorkCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Virtually every baby boomer who cares about contemporary poetry first made its acquaintance in one of the little square paperbacks Lawrence Ferlinghetti started publishing out of his San Francisco bookstore, City Lights, in 1955. Together, those slim volumes of dedicatedly modernist, often Beat, and generally avant-garde verse comprise the Pocket Poets series. A few pages from each of the first 52 titles in the series appear in this sampler. The poets include Ginsberg, O'Hara, Levertov, Kerouac, di Prima, Bly, etc., etc.--a who's who of post^-World War II American modernism--as well as their great inspirer, William Carlos Williams, and such foreign counterparts as Voznesensky and Parra, such foreign forebears as Mayakovsky and Picasso (yes, poems by him). Of course, what we have here is a moment in cultural time, that of the 1950s^-1960s avant-garde; the next generation of new poets published elsewhere. But what a rich moment it is, one that belongs in every American library. Ray Olson

Midwest Book Review
Forty years of publishing and Bay Area history are reflected in this poetry anthology, which includes classic poems edited or written by such Beat notables as Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Patchen, Jack Kerouac, and beyond. The focus on avant-garde literary contributes provides an unusually broad spectrum and definition and a quality not usually seen consistently in modern poetry collections.

Book Description
selections from each of the 52 Pocket Poets books

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Drawing from the 52 volumes published in the Pocket Poets series since 1956, this selection provides a handy sampler of many of the prominent avant-garde and leftist poets of the post-WWII era. Included are poems from Beat staples such as Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Patchen, Jack Kerouac and Ferlinghetti himself. The anthology also demonstrates, however, the beyond-Beat breadth of the series, with works from William Carlos Williams, Robert Bly, Frank O'Hara, Denise Levertov and others. Arranged chronologically by publication, the collection offers a liberal dose of accomplished post-Beat writers, e.g., Diane di Prima and Anne Waldman, who claim roots in the tradition-although much of the more recent work seems simply derivative. The series' extensive international scope is highlighted in poems culled from German, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Nicaraguan and Spanish poets, including Neruda and Garcia Lorca. All in all, this is a lively, if slightly uneven, retrospective. (Dec.)

Library Journal

Celebrating 40 years of publishing, this anthology contains selections from all 52 volumes of the "Pocket Poets" series. Opening with Ferlinghetti's self-published "Pictures of the Gone World," the book moves on to familiar names (Denise Levertov, Kenneth Patchen, Robert Duncan) as well as lesser-known poets (La Loca, Charles Upton, Adam Cornford). Poets appear without biographical notes and create a dialog united by anticapitalist sentiments that transcend continents and languages. One juxtaposition worthy of note is Ginsberg's "Howl" beside Marie Ponsot's tight, rhyming poems. As Ferlinghetti admits, his aim was "to discover," and this retrospective proves "how right or how important (or how trivial) the editor's choices were." The publisher also welcomed artists established in other disciplines, printing works that other publishers shied away from: William Carlos Williams's hard-to-categorize meditations, poems by Malcolm Lowry and Pier Paolo Pasolini. This collection makes an essential statement and is recommended for all poetry collections.-Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York

BookList - Ray Olson