Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970, was an important 2nd generation American modernist poet who was a crucial link between earlier figures like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, a rubric which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance. Subsequently, many postmodern groups, such as the poets of the Language School, include Olson as a primary and precedent figure. He is credited as one of the thinkers who coined the term postmodern.

Perhaps the most important American postmodernist poet, Olson was little published during his life. This work, excluding only The Maximus Poems, should solidify his reputation. Olson burst into poetry in his maturity, sure of his instincts. Though his debt to Pound is evident, he went further in exploring both American language and experience. What amazes us now is not just the profundity and erudition of his themes but the variety of ways he expresses his humanity. Ceaselessly experimental, his poems do not lose their intelligence or intelligibility. They also serve to show how trivialized poetry has become since his death. Ivan Arguelles, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Lib.