BG. Arthur Davison Ficke

6. [Ficke and Bynner]. Spectra: A Book of Poetic Experiments by Anne Knish and Emmanuel Morgan. New York: Kennerly, 1916.

This parody of Imagist verse and Eliot by ‘Anne Knish’ (Ficke) and ‘Emmanuel Morgan’ (Bynner) created an uproar and was among the most successful literary hoaxes of the century. Important to this study for the evidence it provides that the methods of the Imagists, including their interests in Japan, had become so pervasive by 1916 that a parody of their work could itself become a successful collection. ‘It may be noted’, ‘Anne Knish’ writes in the introduction, ‘that to Spectra, to these reflected experiences of life, as we perceive them, adheres often a tinge of humor. Occidental art, in contrast to the art of the Orient, has until lately been afraid of the flash of humor in its serious works.’ The Orientalia in the poems is mainly chinoiserie, but many contain as well short stanzas parodying the hokku-inspired verse of Pound and others. Selections are reprinted in BE11, 17, 18, and 21. See also BE4, 24, BG5g, 8, and 18, The Spectra Hoax, by William Jay Smith (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan UP, 1961), and the June 2002 Spectra Hoax issue of Jacket Magazine ().