This article traces the importance of the locale of Paterson, New Jersey, to William Carlos Williams's famous poem Paterson. Change over the past 40 years to each of the main symbolic sites of the poem—the Passaic River, the mill area of Paterson, and Garret Mountain-is examined. The river differs little, and the mill area is now a tourist site, whereas Garret Mountain has been degraded by lack of maintenance and by private development. In part, the poem's reputation led to the change in the mill area. Now the poem has become part of the city's urban culture, and change to the city has deepened the meaning of the poem.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ALAYA, F. (1984) Silk and Sandstone: The Story of Catholina Lambert and His Castle. Paterson, NJ: Passaic County Historical Society.
2.
BLESSOE, F. (1987) Personal interview. (January 26).
3.
CONARROE, J. (1970) William Carlos Williams' Paterson: Language and Landscape. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
4.
COTZ, J. (1985) "Dublin: Paterson's first neighborhood."The Castle Lite: Passaic Country Historical Society Newsletter. 16 (Spring-Summer): 1, 3.
5.
DEWEY, J. (1920) "Americanism and localism,"The Dial68 (June): 684-688.
6.
GEORGE, G. (1986) Personal interview. (March 4).
7.
GUIMOND, J. (1968) The Art of William Carlos Williams. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press.
8.
GUTMAN, H. G. (1969) "The reality of the rags to riches `myth': the case of the Paterson, New Jersey, locomotive, iron and machinery manufacturers, 1830-1890," pp. 98-124 in S. Thernstrom and R. Sennett (eds.) Nineteenth Century Cities: Essays in the New Urban History. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
9.
KRAMER, M. E. (1986) Personal interview. (March 4).
10.
RIDDEL, J. N. (1974) The Inverted Bell: Modernism and the Counterpoetics of William Carlos Williams. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press.
11.
SANKEY, B. (1971) A Companion to William Carlos Williams' Paterson. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
12.
WILLIAMS, W. C. (1963) Paterson. New York: New Directions.
13.
YOUNG, J. (1986) Personal interview. (March 4).
14.
ZABRISKIE, G. (1953) "The geography of Paterson."Perspective: A Q. of Modern Literature6 (Autumn): 201-216.
