A study of how we should read one of America s most important poetsBen Hickman argues that we must attend to Ashbery s radical conception of reading if we are to understand the originality of his writing His study focuses on Ashbery s reading of English poets including Andrew Marvell John Donne William Wordsworth John Clare T S Eliot and W H Auden and examines Ashbery s writing in terms of an aesthetic of inattention Hickman critiques the Americanisation of Ashbery s work as well as common assumptions about his Romanticism his avant garde Modernism and his engagement with the historical present He demonstrates that Ashbery s generosity as a writer is closely tied to his generosity inattention and situatedness as a reader Key FeaturesOriginal new reading of Ashbery s affinities with English poetry and his engagement with different poets and traditionsDraws on research undertaken at the Houghton archive where Ashbery s papers are heldInnovative approach will help reshape the critical apparatus for appreciating contemporary poetry as a whole