This is the first book to analyze fully the West German mediation and reception of American poetry following World War II. Contrary to expectations, it shows that, despite some serious and thoughtful attempts by German authors at mediating contemporary US-poetry to a West German audience shortly after the war, a broad reception was only successful in the late 1960s, concurrent with the student protests and the discovery in Germany of the beat generation. This development is surprising when compared to Germany's much earlier and enthusiastic reception of American prose, film, and mass...