Charles Olson was born and raised in Worcester, Massachussetts, where his father was a mailman.  As a child he would spend summers on the coast in Gloucester, which went on to become the focus of one of his most important works “The Maximus Poems” – a series of poems written between 1953 to 1975 which secured him his place in literary history.  During his high school years he was recognized as being an excellent orator and  won a tour of Europe as a prize for his skills.

Charles Olson had diverse interests and experiences, which may explain why he didn’t publish his first work until his mid-thirties.  After studying American civilization at University, he worked for the Democratic Party during the Second World War.  He was offered significant Government posts but withdrew suddenly from politics to focus exclusively on writing.  His first  book was published in 1947 and was entitled “Call Me Ishmael”.  It  was a study of “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville and became highly acclaimed.  He started writing poetry in the early 1950s and some of his early work included “The Kingfishers”, “In Cold Hell” and “Thicket”.

In 1948 he was persuaded to take on a temporary teaching position at Black Mountain College, North Carolina,  and proved himself to be an extremely effective teacher.  He returned there in 1951 to take over the position of rector, where he remained  until the College closed in 1956.

Charles Olson then returned to Gloucester where he devoted most of his time to “The Maximus Poems” which he had started during the 1950s.  At this time he lived – by choice – in relative isolation and poverty.

He accepted a teaching position at the University of Connecticut, but became stricken by cancer.  He  died a month after completing his epic work “The Maximus Poems”, just after his fifty-ninth birthday.  Charles Olson did not see himself as a poet or an author, but described himself as “an archeologist of morning”.