PUBLICATIONS Current GR Issue Recent GR Issues Subscribe to the GR January 1996 Issue Instructions for Authors Contact the GR Editor About the Geographical Review Search the GR Index FOCUS on Geography Magazine Ubique Maps, Atlases, and Books

Geographical Review January 1996, Vol. 86(1), pp. 22-41. "Mr. Sauer" and the Writers James J. Parsons Carl O. Sauer (1896-1975) Professor of Geography University of California at Berkeley   ABSTRACT: The geographer Carl Sauer was an articulate figure within the larger field of American scholarship. His distinctive worldview and his emphasis on the historical past in the shaping of the cultural landscape drew enthusiastic response from a significant group of avant-garde poets associated with the Black Mountain College, North Carolina, and their iconoclastic mentor, Charles Olson (1910­1970). Olson was a central figure in the postmodern revolution that energized and transformed the appearance and substance of poetry in the United States in the years following World War II. Olson was strongly attracted to the originality and insightfulness of Sauer's writings, his sensitivity to the aesthetic values in the cultural landscape, his insistence on the immutable link between history and geography, his identification with people living close to the land, and the vigor and authenticity of Sauer's writing style. Today, more than twenty years after Olson's death, his literary heirs are reaching back to the maestro's roots, seeking to learn more about the man Sauer and his geography. Key words: Black Mountain College, historical cultural geography, literary criticism, Charles Olson, poetry, Carl Sauer. DR. PARSONS (1915-1997) was a professor emeritus of geography at the University of California at Berkeley. Further information is available at another link; see Jim Parsons. To reach the family, and for reprints, contact: Mail: Mrs. Betty Parsons 670 Woodmont Avenue Berkeley, CA 94708 U.S.A.