Search Results: Poetry from Johnson Rare Books & Archives

Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2004. First Edition. Trade paperback. Fine. Inscribed by Short to acclaimed poet B.H. ("Pete") Fairchild on the title page. Octavo. Original paper wrappers. A fine copy.

Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2016. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. A major career retrospective by the California Poet Laureate. Signed by Gioia on the title page. Octavo. Original black cloth binding, with silver titles. A near fine copy in a clean and bright dust jacket.

New York: Cape Goliard Press in association with Grossman Publishers, 1970. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Fantastic collaboration between poet Ron Padgett and pop expressionist Jim Dine. Quarto. Original black cloth binding, with white titles. Mild wear to the dust jacket; otherwise near fine.

London: Taylor and Hessey, 1825. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A religious and philosophical treatise by the English Romantic poet. Coleridge (1772-1834) compiled this unsystematic collection of commentaries and aphorisms on selected passages from the 17th century Anglican divine Archbishop Leighton. It stresses the importance of Christianity as a "personal revelation" and further distinction between Reason and Understanding, originally drawn from Kant, as the source respectively of "Moral" and "Prudential" action. 404 p. Octavo. In a one-half vellum over brown cloth binding by Morrell (London), with gilt stamping and marbled endpapers. Some occasional pencil marginalia. The vellum is lightly soiled; else very good.

East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001. First Edition. Trade paperback. Fine. Inscribed by Stone to acclaimed poet B.H. ("Pete") Fairchild on the title page. Octavo. Original paper wrappers. A fine copy.

Washington, D.C., 1872. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Printed by Samuel W. Green of New York in an edition of 572 copies, about 300 of which were bound. A collection of seven new poems, and the significant "Preface" in which Whitman (1819-92) envisions this volume as the first installment of a new collection of an "aggregated, inseparable, unprecedented, vast, composite, electric, Democratic Nationality." The poems here would eventually be swept into the epic project of Leaves of Grass but here they remained something new for Whitman, who says here of the eternal experiment of his poems: "the earnest trial and exploration shall at least be mine, and other success failing, shall be success enough." Octavo: [xiv], [16], 8 [advertisements] p. Original green cloth binding, with gilt titles. With an ink notation on the prefatory blank leaf by the Victorian-era bibliographer and antiquarian bookseller Harry Buxton Forman (1842-1917) concerning the scarcity of this title. A bit of wear to the… Read More

Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2013. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Samuel Rogers was arguably the most widely read poet of the early 19th century and a prominent figure in the literary and cultural life of London, owning one of the largest private art collections of his day. Known throughout his life as "the Banker Poet," he came from a radical, Dissenting background and was politically active at a time when to be so involved personal danger. Martin Blocksidge considers the nature of Rogers' poetry and the reputation it acquired and examines its cultural context. Octavo: 370 p. with textual illustrations. Original glossy boards; issued without a dust jacket. A crisp, unread copy. Light bumping to the extremities; else near fine.

Orono, Maine: National Poetry Foundation, Inc, 1980. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. The first major study of the life and work of the British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of Briggflatts (1966). Octavo. Original green cloth binding, with gilt titles. A fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket with some light wear.

Upland, California: The Blackbird Press, 2010. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Of one hundred signed copies, this is number 65. A narrative poem from Fairchild's third collection, The Art of the Lathe (1998). Illustrated with linoleum cuts by Anna Alquitela, letterpress printed and hand-bound with stainless steel "hinges" and aluminum-wrapped covers, housed in a gray cloth clamshell box with a gray paper band. For her fine press edition, The Blackbird Press' Jean Gillingwators said she knew from the initial reading that her book edition would have metal covers, reminiscent of the corrugated-metal buildings that often house machine shops. However, her endeavor became a three-year ordeal when the metal hinges she planned to use were no longer available and had to be handcrafted by herself and her assistant. "The 2,200 parts arrived, drilled and cut perfectly, ready to use. We bought some miniature equipment, and Anna cut all the other tubing and wire into thousands of bitty pieces ... Binding Beauty… Read More

London: Printed for Subscribers only, 1896. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Octavo: vii, (1), 88 p. In a one-half green morocco over marbled paper binding, with gilt stamping, five raised bands, and matching marbled endpapers. The original printed blue paper wrappers are bound in. The bookplate of John A. Spoor appears on the front pastedown. The spine is moderately sun faded, with a bit of light edgewear; otherwise very good.

Black Mountain, North Carolina: Black Mountain College, 1954. First Edition. Wraps. Very good. The second issue of this seminal literary and art journal, which made an impact on artistic circles in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and beyond. Includes a selection of verse by Antonin Artaud translated by Kenneth Rexroth, a study of Herman Melville's poetry by Ronald Mason, and an essay on The Desert Music of William Carlos Williams by Robert Creeley, as well as contributions by Toda Tomoya, Irving Layton, Paul Blackburn, Douglas Woolf, Kizu Toyotaro, and Lucy Lapp. Printed in Mallorca, Spain. Octavo, 64 p. with 8 black-and-white photographs illustrating Charles Olson's piece on Mayan heads. Original printed paper wrappers. Period ink bookseller's stamp (The Phoenix - Books, Berkeley, California) to the rear endpaper. Some moderate toning to the wrappers, with a small tear to the bottom edge of the rear panel; otherwise very good.

London and New York: Continuum, 2010. Hardcover. Fine. Octavo. Original glossy boards; issued without a dust jacket. A fine copy.

Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2002. First Edition. Trade paperback. Fine. Winner of the 2001 AWP Award Series in Poetry. Inscribed by Jacobik to acclaimed poet B.H. ("Pete") Fairchild on the title page. Octavo. Original paper wrappers. A fine copy.

Upland, California: Blackbird Press, 2021. Fine. A signed, limited edition broadside of this poem, which originally appeared in the Poem-A-Day program from the Academy of American Poets. Herrera, the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, said: "I had been wanting to write a poem dedicated to George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery for a while. After a few drafts, the poems felt forced. This piece was the last attempt. Gwendolyn Brooks came to the rescue-her hammering 'we,' and her complex simplicity. And a barely visible tint of Ginsberg." This broadside was printed in an edition 150, of which 100 were keepsakes for the 2021 Parenthesis 41. This is number 18. Jean Gillingswators designed and printed the poem, using a printing technique to fade the "we" at the end of each line to evoke the dying struggle of George Floyd. The broadside is printed on white and gray textured 7 ½" x 11" stock in black ink. Fine.

Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania and Claremont, California: Lawson-Roberts Publishing Company, 1932. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Inscribed by Robert W. O'Brien to Hugh Vernon White, Executive Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, on the front flyleaf, above White's bookplate. An anthology of poetry written by undergraduates and recent graduates of the historically black colleges, with contributions by J. Henderson Brooks and Lucy Ariel Williams, among many others. In an April 13, 1932 letter to Robert W. O'Brien, Countee Cullen praised this anthology as "an encouraging expression of poetry from young Negro collegians" and "a definite indication that there is a crop of new Negro poets in the making". A second volume of The Brown Thrush was published in 1935. Octavo: 67 p. with [2] p. index and 2 illustrations. Original brown paper-covered boards over a green cloth spine, with printed paper title label on the front panel. Minor staining to the spine heel, with some… Read More

Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. An examination of the poet's mysterious and longstanding preoccupation with death and grief. Octavo: 292 p. Original glossy boards; issued without a dust jacket. A crisp, unread copy. Some mild edgewear; else near fine.

San Francisco: A.M. Robertson, 1916. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. This eclectic collection of verse is split into four parts. The first consists of 33 of the fantastic poems for which Sterling was so famous, followed by three poems on the Panama-Pacific Exposition and four personal poems, and concluding with 43 poems on the then-ongoing First World War. An Oakland contemporary of Joaquin Miller and Jack London, George Sterling (1869-1926) later became one of the first residents of Carmel and a leading supporter of the poetry of fellow bohemian Robinson Jeffers. Sterling is said to be the inspiration for two Jack London characters: Russ Brissenden in Martin Eden (1909) and Mark Hall in The Valley of the Moon (1913). Inscribed and dated in the year of publication by Sterling to Mary Elizabeth Fenn on the front flyleaf, with Fenn's bookplate on the front pastedown. Small octavo. Original green cloth binding, with gilt stamping. In the scarce dust jacket, which is a touch browned with… Read More

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Second Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Octavo. Original glossy boards; issued without a dust jacket. Light bump to the spine heel; else a fine copy.

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Signed and dated by Adam Zagajewski on the title page. The poet's second volume to appear in English. One of the "Generation of '68" or "New Wave" writers in Poland, Zagajewski (1945-2021) rose to prominence with protest poetry. His later work explored such themes as "the night, dreams, history and time, infinity and eternity, silence and death" (Joachim T. Baer, World Literature Today). Octavo. Original cloth binding, with black titles. A near fine copy in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Inscribed by McMichael on the title page. The poet's sixth collection, a National Book Award finalist. Octavo. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket.