Hardcover. NY, Norton, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 104 pages. SIGNED BY JACKSON on the title page. Clean.
Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 163 pages. Includes selected poems from all his previous books and many new ones. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with minor edgewear, unclipped, 334 pages. Poet/critic's posthumously published third volume of essays, here mostly writer's he loved, including: Stead, Frost, Stevens, Kipling, Auden, Graves and Chekov and other Russians. Name on blank prelim page, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 426 pages. The most wide-ranging volume of the work of Europe's leading postwar poet. Paul Celan was born in 1920 in the East European province of Bukovina. Soon after his parents, German-speaking Jews, had perished at the hands of the Nazis, Celan wrote "Todesfuge" ("Deathfugue"), the most compelling poem to emerge from the Holocaust. Self-exiled in Paris, for twenty-five years Celan continued writing in his German mother tongue, although it had "passed through the thousand darknesses of death-bringing speech." His writing purges and remakes that language, often achieving a hope-struck radiance never before seen in modern poetry. But in 1970, his psychic wounds unhealed, Celan drowned himself in the Seine. This landmark volume includes youthful lyrics, unpublished poems, and prose. All poems appear in the original and in translation on facing pages. John Felstiner's translations stem from a twenty-year immersion in Celan's life and work. John Bayley wrote in the New York Review of Books, "Felstiner translates . . . brilliantly." Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Heavy, 1186 pages. Introduction, afterword, notes, glossary, chronology, bibliography, index of titles. Comprehensive edition of America's pre-eminent post-war poet's works, from the early triumph of Lord Weary's Castle, winner of the Pulitzer Prize to the late spontaneity of his History, winner of another Pulitzer, and of his last book of poems, Day by Day. Includes several poems never previously collected, as well as a selection of Lowell's drafts. Clean copy. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Hardcover. NY, George Braziller, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket, 191 pages, 74 pages illustrated in color by Chobunsai Eishi. Exquisite illustrations in color throughout connecting beautifully with the text which includes one poem in English and Japanese by each poet. Historical background for each poet. Mild sunning to bottom edge of dust jacket. Clean copy.
Softcover. St. Louis, Washington University Libraries, 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 32 pages in stapled wrappers. An exhibit of printed materials and manuscripts drawn from the Modern Literature Collection of Washington University. Illustrated. Clean copy.
Softcover. Monterey KY, Frankfort Arts Foundation, Ltd. Ed., 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, Limited to 310 copies, this being #310. The first section of this handsome book publishes eight poems by Hass. The second section presents poems by Eric Trethewey and eight other poets. Designed and printed by Gray Zeitz at the Larkspur Press in Monterey, Kentucky. Japanese style binding. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. St Paul MN, Graywolf Press, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 62 pages. INSCRIBED/SIGNED BY THE POET on the front fly leaf. The poems discuss a journey across the ocean, a veterans' cemetery, money, an abandoned collection of dolls, and a man who escapes from his prison cell to commit a murder. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, New Directions, 5th pr., Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, unclipped dust jacket ($5.00), 273 pages. If the invention of literary modernism is usually attributed to James Joyce, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, it was Pound alone who provided (in Hugh Kenner's words) "the synergetic presence" to convert individual experiment into an international movement. In 1926 Pound carefully sculpted his body of shorter poems into a definitive collection which would best show the concentration of force, the economy of means, and the habit of analysis that were, to him, the hallmarks of the new style. This collection, where Pound presented himself in a variety of characters or "masks," was called Personae. In 1926, Personae's publication gave solidity to a movement today the work stands as one of the classic texts of the twentieth century. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Thomas Y. Crowell, 4th pr., 1945, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, maroon cloth with gilt lettering and rose decoration on cover, 86 pages. Lovely edition of these timeless love sonnets brought to life with 8 striking full-color tipped-in plates & pen-and-ink drawings of Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogany (1882-1955). No dust jacket, clean copy.
Hardcover. London, Victor Gollancz, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 63 pages. Corrections/alterations to several poems in blue ink and dated 4/23/85. Each dated alteration is accompanied by a capital letter 'M', presumably for Menashe. In addition there is a handwritten poem opposite the title page in blue ink titled "Walking Stick", probably by the author. Menashe's short, intense, spiritual poems canvas existential dilemmas and use implication and wordplay as a way of deepening the linguistic force of his words.
Softcover. NY, Corinth Books, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 47 pages, limited to 1500 copies. The cover design is from a collage by Joe Brainard. Crease to bottom corner of front cover, clean copy.
Softcover. Los Angeles, Black Sparrow Press, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, One of 1000 copies in wraps. 62 pages in light brown printed wraps. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 203 pages. A bold, pioneering, "free-souled" and long-rare classic of concrete poetry published by Doubleday and Company in 1970. One of a tiny handful of books of concrete poetry published in America by a major publishing house. Sadly, the book was given little support and was not promoted, and it has long been out of print. However, it remains a cherished item for fans of poetry due to its unique composition, and difficult but rewarding poetics. Forcing the reader to straddle the line between reading and viewing, the book features visual poems that predate the experiments of the Language poets, including words that are exploded into their individual letters, and columns of text that ride the edge of the page. Clean, bright copy of the paperback edition.
Hardcover. NY/San Francisco, New Directions / San Francisco Review, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a very good dust jacket with toning on the spine and edges, unclipped. A stark panorama of late 19th and early 20th-century America-the underside of the Gilded Age, beset by racism and casual violence, poverty and disease-in a radically stripped-down language. A legendary book that stands alongside Louis Zukofsky's "A" and William Carlos Williams' Paterson as a milestone of modern American poetry. 115 pages, no markings.
Softcover. NY, Grove Press , 1st pbk., 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 96 pages. Originally published in 1960 by Grove Press, this is a subsequent edition, issued as a paperbound original. Wrappers lightly toned, clean copy.
Softcover. NY, October House, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 273 pages. Contains among others the following poems: Daedalus; Luctus in Morte Infantis; The Crystal; Venerable all Hills all Valleys; Narcissus; The Leaping Laughers; The Seal Boy; He comes among; I am that face about which fire fell; Summer Idyll; It is the sorrow season; I, mute immutable, cry; Verses from a Nursery Wall etc. Clean, bright copy.
Softcover. Cambridge MA, Yellow Moon Press, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, First Printing. No limitation stated. A very good copy in tan printed wrappers, the paperbound trade issue. Unpaginated. Translations in English, with Illustrations by Rita Shumaker, and an introductory statement "Why Rumi Didn't Sign His Poems" by Barks. INSCRIBED BY ROBERT BLY with a sketch on the front fly leaf.
Hardcover. Petersham MA, Tatlock Publications, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Poetry by the New England author. 93 pages including notes plus the author's biographic sketch. Clean copy.
Softcover. Madison MN, Seventies Press Spring , 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 95 pages. Poems translated mostly by Bly (in two cases with James Wright) of Federico Garcia Lorca, Cesar Vallejo, Blas de Otero, Pablo Neruda, Robert Bly, Tomas Transtromer, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, John Wieners, Jerome Rothenberg, Philip Lamantia, et al. Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean.
Softcover. Middletown CT, Wesleyan University Press, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 72 pages. A lovely copy of this vintage book of Edson's landmark prose poetry. The author's 7th collection. Clean copy.
Softcover. Providence RI, Burning Deck, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, stapled beige wrapper with brown line drawing and green text, limited to 500 copies. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Ann Arbor MI, Kylix Press, 1st, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 75 pages. Mild fading to dust jacket spine. No markings.
Softcover. Langley WA, Spring Valley Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 72 pages. One of 1,100 copies. Publisher's leaflet laid in. Clean copy.
Softcover. Washington, D.C., Wall Street Press, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 79 pages. INSCRIBED BY JOYCE ON FRONT ENDPAPER. Black laminate covers, perfect binding, large b&w photograph of poet to front cover, one large b&w plate. Light rubbing to covers, page block crisp and unmarked; a very clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. Alexandria VA, Orchises Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 80 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket, else a clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, The Viking Press, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn jacket with light fading ti spine. 160 pages. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean. This American edition is a double volume, as the lyrics were published in England under the title *Inward Companion* and *Winged Chariot* followed as a separate book.
Hardcover. Santa Barbara CA, Black Sparrow Press, 4th pr., 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in an acetate dust jacket. Bright clean copy. 6 x 9, 153 pages, b/w author photo, black endpapers.
Hardcover. London, Cape Goliard Press/Grossman, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, A bright, clean copy in flax colored buckram, golden yellow enpapers, in a tan dust wrapper printed in dark blue, not price-clipped. This volume presents, for the first time in collected form, all the poems Charles Olson authorized for publication in his lifetime, from 1946 until his death in January, 1970, apart from the Maximus Poems sequence.
Softcover. London/NY, Cape Goliard Press/Grossman, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Softcover, illustrated wrappers with glassine dust wrapper. Unpaginated but well over 100 pages. First printing of the second volume of Olson's poetic opus. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, Archipelago Books, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 79 pages. The first full flowering of Chinese poetry occurred in the illustrious T'ang Dynasty, and at the beginning of this renaissance stands Meng Hao-jan (689-740 c.e.), esteemed elder to a long line of China's greatest poets. Deeply influenced by Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism, Meng was the first to make poetry from the Ch'an insight that deep understanding lies beyond words. The result was a strikingly distilled language that opened new inner depths, non-verbal insights, and outright enigma. This made Meng Hao-jan China's first master of the short imagistic landscape poem that came to typify ancient Chinese poetry. And as a lifelong intimacy with mountains dominates Meng's work, such innovative poetics made him a preeminent figure in the wilderness (literally rivers-and-mountains) tradition, and that tradition is the very heart of Chinese poetry. This is the first English translation devoted to the work of Meng Hao-jan. Meng's poetic descendents revered the wisdom he cultivated as a mountain recluse, and now we too can witness the sagacity they considered almost indistinguishable from that of rivers and mountains themselves. Clean, bright copy.
Softcover. NY, Archipelago Books, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 275 pages. Joao Cabral de Melo Neto is one of Brazil's most acclaimed poets. From his early days, Mr. Cabral has written poems that are marked by a captivating use of simple language. Avoiding ceremony and circumstance, they follow centuries-old paths rather than struggle to break new ground. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, Archipelago Books, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 259 pages. Written in a pared-down, direct language, and filled with allusions to everything from philosophy to TV talk shows, the poetry of Tadeusz Rozewicz encompasses the complexity of human experience in the early 21st century. Rozewicz's unique voice, formed during his experiences as a member of the Polish resistance in World War II, and honed by decades living under communist rule, holds a merciless mirror up to the crimes and excesses of the poet's lifetime. In his eighties now, Rozewicz continues to be a prolific writer and an acerbic commentator on his life and times. This collection combines his latest three volumes: professor's knife, gray zone, and exit. These are extraordinary poems from an acknowledged European master. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New York, Random House, 1st, 1955, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 204 pages, red cloth covers in an unclipped dust jacket with light darkening to edges and spine. INSCRIBED BY SPENDER to literary historian and critic Roger Shattuck: "To Roger/My guide through/ Cambridge and Casablanca/with a great many thanks/Stephen Spender/Cambridge 1955".
Hardcover. London, William Heinemann, 1st thus, 1921, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, 116 pages, illustrated with 4 color and 12 b&w plates by G.D. Armour. Green cloth covers with brown lettering and design, gilt lettering on spine. The green dust jacket is worn, chipped with a small hole at the edge of the spine. SIGNED & HANDWRITTEN LETTER BY AUTHOR tipped inside cover, also ANOTHER SIGNED NOTE W/ENVELOPE laid in.
Hardcover. New York, Dodd Mead and Co., 1st, 1901, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 127 pages, illustrated with b&w photographs by the Hampton Institute Camera Club, decorations including cover gilt design by Margaret Armstrong. Title page in red and black. There is damp staining/fading of the green cloth covers along the top inch or so on both the front and rear. This does not effect any pages internally. There is a previous owner's signature along with "Xmas 1901" on the front fly leaf. Aside from the cover fade, a very nice copy.
Hardcover. London/NewYork, Dent/Dutton, 1st, 1901, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 120 pages, 3-color illustrations throughout by Charles Robinson. Binding is shaken but intact with all of the wonderful plates. The cloth spine has separated from the backstrip and the 3-color decoration on the front cover suffers from rubbing/fading in areas. Small volume, 5" tall, 3 3/4" wide, one in a series titled The Bairn Books.
Softcover. Mexico , Flor Ruiz, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 80 pages, introduction by Jay Parini. Softcover with dust jacket, uncut pages. Limited to 1000 copies.
Hardcover. New York, Farrar Straus & Cudahy, 1st, 1956, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 64 pages, b&w iilustrations by Ben Shahn. Dust jacket with closed tear on front panel, light chipping.
Softcover. Athens GA, University of Georgia Press, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 76 pages, illustrated wraps. SIGNED BY JACKSON on title page.
Hardcover. Boston, Woodberry Society, 1st, 1912, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Tan boards with black cloth spine, paper label on spine. One of only 300 printed.
Hardcover. New York, Farrar Straus & Company, 1st US, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 85 pages, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. His first book of poetry to be published in the United States.
Hardcover. New York, Henry Holt, 8th pr., 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 666 pages, green cloth covers with gilt lettering to front and spine, top edge green. INSCRIBED BY FROST on front fly leaf, "To Mrs T.P. Washburn/ from Robert Frost/with best wishes/ Middlebury Vermont /October 1959". Tight, clean copy.
Hardcover. New York, Dodd Mead and Co., 1st, 1903, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 144 pages, illustrated with photographs by the Hampton Institute Camera Club. Brown cloth with decorative binding in three colors plus gilt by Margaret Armstrong. Front hinge cracked, some wear to top and bottom of spine cloth, otherwise clean and bright copy.
Record # 404812
Price: $100.00
Used & Rare Poetry Books
Browse a rotating selection of used, rare and out-of-print poetry, spanning modern American verse, anthologies and scholarly studies. Coverage moves between twentieth-century voices, experimental work and regional collections, with the occasional bilingual or Spanish-language title. You will find collected and uncollected editions, small-press printings and author-signed copies gathered from private collections.
Recent listings include David Bottoms' In a U-Haul North of Damascus, Yvor Winters' Primitivism and Decadence: A Study of American Experimental Poetry, Richard Eberhart's The Long Reach: New & Uncollected Poems, and Ernesto Cardenal's Oracion por Marilyn Monroe. Regional volumes such as Poets and Poetry of Vermont and Theodore Weiss's collected poems round out the shelf.
Because much of the stock is single copies, condition and availability vary, as with any used and rare material, and signed or first editions come and go. Browse the collection and order online.
 "The Absurd Man (SIGNED COPY) by: Major Jackson")
 "A Winter Come, A Summer Gone: Poems, 1946-1960 by: Howard Moss")
 "The Third Book of Criticism by: Jarrell, Randall")
 "Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan by: Celan, Paul / Felsteiner, John (trans.)")
 "Robert Lowell: Collected Poems by: Robert Lowell; Edited by Frank Bidart and David Gewanter with the Editorial Assistance of DeSales Harrison")
 "The Thirty-Six Immortal Women Poets: A Poetry Album by: Pekarik, Andrew J. (Ed.)/Chobunsai Eishi (Illust.)")
 "James Merrill, Poet by: Merrill, James; Holly Hall (Intro.)")
 "Phrases After Noon by: Hass, Robert, and Eric Trethewey")
 "The Gods of Winter (SIGNED COPY) by: Gioia, Dana")
 "Personae: Collected Shorter Poems by: Pound, Ezra")
 "Sonnets from the Portuguese by: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett; Pogany, Willy (Illustrator)")
 "Fringe of Fire (ANNOTATED BY AUTHOR) by: Menashe, Samuel")
 "Many Happy Returns by: Berrigan, Ted")
 "Gunslinger Book II by: Dorn, Edward")
 "The Matrix: Poems, 1960-1970 by: Pritchard, Norman H.")
 "Testimony: The United States 1885-1890, Recitative by: Reznikoff, Charles")
 "The Opening of the Field by: Robert Duncan")
 "Bending The Bow by: Duncan, Robert")
 "Natural Numbers: New and Selected Poems by: Kenneth Rexroth")
 "Untitled Subjects: Poems by: Howard, Richard")
 "Collected Poems 1930-1965 by: George Barker")
 "Shifts of Being: Poems by: Eberhart, Richard")
 "Night & Sleep (INSCRIBED BY BLY) by: Rumi/versions by Coleman Barks and Robert Bly")
 "Sacra Via by: Doreski, William")
 "The Seventies: Number 1, Spring 1972 by: Bly, Robert (editor)")
 "Allegiances by: Stafford, William")
 "The Reason Why the Closet-Man Is Never Sad by: Russell Edson")
 "With Sincerest Regrets by: Edson, Russell")
 "Alliance, Illinois by: Etter, Dave")
 "The Language of Bone by: Driscoll, Jack")
 "Listen America, You Don't Even Own Your Name (INSCRIBED COPY) by: William Joyce")
 "Riding Untouched (SIGNED COPY) by: Houghton, Timothy")
 "Winged Chariot and Other New Poems Including Inward Companion by: Walter de la Mare")
 "Smudging by: Wakoski, Diane")
 "Archaeologist of Morning by: Olson, Charles")
 "Maximus Poems IV, V, VI by: Olson, Charles")
 "The Mountain Poems of Meng Hao-Jan by: Meng Hao-jan, / David Hinton (Translator)")
 "Education by Stone: Selected Poems by: Joao Cabral de Melo Neto /Richard Zenith (Translator)")
 "New Poems by: Tadeusz Rozewicz (Author), Bill Johnston (Translator)")
 "Collected Poems (SIGNED COPY) by: Spender, Stephen")
 "Reynard the Fox or The Ghost Heath Run by: Masefield, John")
 "Candle-Lightin' Time by: Dunbar, Paul Laurence")
 "Book of Days for Little Ones, A by: Bridgman, Clare and Charles Robinson")
 "Walking Through the Night by: Axinn, Donald Everett")
 "Homage to Mistress Bradshaw: A Poem with pictures by Ben Shahn by: Berryman, John")
 "Leaving Saturn (SIGNED COPY) by: Jackson, Major")
 "Day at Castrogiovanni, A by: Woodberry, George Edward")
 "Selected Poems by: Walcott, Derek")
 "When Malindy Sings by: Dunbar, Paul Laurence")