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GEOGRAPHY III
by BISHOP, Elizabeth:
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1976. First edition, first printing. First edition, first printing. Original brown cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Cynthia Krupat. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. There are a few faint spots to the fore-edge of the page block. Complete with the sharp, fresh dustwrapper, fine except for a couple of light surface marks. Not price-clipped ($7.95 to the upper edge of the front flap). A lovely copy. 'Geography III', Bishop's fourth and final volume of poems is, like its predecessors North & South (1946), A Cold Spring (1955), and Questions of Travel (1965) the fruit of over a decade's work. Short and perfectly formed, it contains many of her most celebrated poems ('In the Waiting Room', 'The Moose', the villanelle 'One Art', to name just three). The epigraph to the book is a quirky series of questions and answers drawn from James Monteith's 'First Lessons in Geography' (1884), a copy of which was gifted to Bishop by fellow poet John Ashbery early in 1976. In his book on Ashbery, John Shoptaw cites the postcard, dated April 27, in which Bishop thanks him for the gift: "The geography book is wonderful. I can't quite believe it's real, it is so apt. I may use some of its questions & answers as a POEM, or a foreword, to my book." As his writings on Bishop make clear, Ashbery was in awe of Bishop, but 'Geography III' touchingly shows influence travelling in the other direction Bishop's 'Crusoe in England' (completed in early 1970) almost certainly takes as its cue Ashbery's long poem 'The Skaters' (from 'Rivers and Mountains', 1966). Appropriately enough, the jacket of 'Geography III' prints part of Ashbery's text sponsoring Bishop for the 1976 Books Abroad /Neustadt International Prize for Literature (Bishop would be the first American and first woman to be awarded the prize): "The extraordinary thing about Miss Bishop is that she is both a public and a private poet, or perhaps it is that her poetry by its very existence renders obsolete these two after all artificial distinctions (artificial insofar as poetry is concerned). The private selfthe quirkiness, the rightness of vision, the special sights and events (a moose, a filling station) that have intrigued Miss Bishop to the point of poetrymelts imperceptibly into the larger utterance, the grandeur of poetry, which, because it remains rooted in everyday particulars, never sounds 'grand', but is as quietly convincing as honest speech." 'Geography III' was published on 28 December 1976 in an edition of 7500 copies. (John Shoptaw, 'On the Outside Looking Out: John Ashbery's Poetry', Cambridge MA: 1995; MacMahon A13). Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Lucius Books
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 24449
- Title
- GEOGRAPHY III
- Author
- BISHOP, Elizabeth:
- Book Condition
- Used
- Edition
- First edition, first printing
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1976
Terms of Sale
Lucius Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Lucius Books
Biblio member since 2015
York, North Yorkshire
About Lucius Books
Our shop is located in central York within a stones throw of the historic Micklegate Bar and walls. We are open seven days a week and carry a high quality stock specialising in but not limited to first editions, signed copies, bound sets and childrens / illustrated books and original art. Our opening times are 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and 11am to 4pm on Sundays.Lucius Books is proud to be a full member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) trade associations. If you are unable to make it to the shop then our stock is available to view on our website at www.luciusbooks.com
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Dustwrapper
- Also known as book jacket, dust cover, or dust wrapper, a dust jacket is a protective and decorative cover for a book that is...