Content
Donald Allen's anthology "The New American Poetry" 1945-1960 remains the most important anthology of American alternative poetry in the post-war era. Despite the fact that it failed to include a sufficient number of black or women poets, it was nevertheless a remarkably accurate and useful guide to the poetry of its time and also anticipated much of the poetry and related prose that came after it. Paul Hoover's "Postmodern American Poetry" (1994) builds upon these foundations by including the Language poets and a broad base of performance-related poetries.

1. Black Mountain School and the New Poetry

Paul Hoover (ed), "Postmodern American Poetry" (1994); Ann Charters (ed), "The Penguin Book of the Beats" (1992)

2. The "Beat" Writers

Allen Ginsberg, "Howl" (1956)
Jack Kerouac, "On the Road" (1957)
See also: Paul Hoover (ed), "Postmodern American Poetry" (1994); Ann Charters (ed), "The Penguin Book of the Beats" (1992)

3. New American Prose

Hubert Selby, "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1966)
Paul Hoover (ed), "Postmodern American Poetry" (1994); Ann Charters (ed), "The Penguin Book of the Beats" (1992)

4. The New York Poets

John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler, Frank O'Hara, in Paul Hoover (ed), "Postmodern American Poetry" (1994)

5. Poetry and Mythology