Poetry from Lightholder Books

Viper Jazz by James Tate. 1976 Wesleyan University Press, paperback edition, 79 pages. Tate was a Pulitzer and National Book award-winning poet. According to his obituary in the Guardian: "James Tate . . . was one of the most original and inventive American poets of his era, whose sense of humour and love of the tall story calls to mind… Read more about this item

The Land Surveyor's Daughter by Ellen Gilchrist. 1979 Lost Roads, first edition, 46 pages. Gilchrist is a Southern author who won the National Book Award for her story collection Victory Over Japan. Her work is steeped in the Southern tradition, witty and wise. Land Surveyor's Daughter was her first book, a collection of poetry, with a small print run. Condition: Good,… Read more about this item

voices/I hear/voices by William Packard. Illustrated by Steffan. 1972 Barlenmir House, first edition. Packard was a novelist, playwright, and poet who founded the poetry magazine New York Quarterly, known for publishing poems and interviews by the likes of Sexton, Ashbery and Bukowski. Voices was his third book of poems. Condition: Inscribed by the author. Jacket in good- condition with stain on… Read more about this item

Eureka Mill by Ron Rash. 1998 Bench Press, unstated edition, signed, 63 pages. Rash is a poet, short story writer, and novelist who often writes of Appalachia. Eureka was Rash's debut poetry collection which depicts life in the mill. Condition: VG. Signed on title page "After tonight I see why mill and hell are spelled almost the same and sound alike."

The Incognito Lounge and Other Poems by Denis Johnson. 1982 Random House, first paperback edition, 79 pages. Johnson was a novelist and poet who garnered acclaim for his short-story collection Jesus's Son and award-winning novel Tree of Smoke. According to New York Times, "[His] novels and short stories about the fallen — junkies, down-and-out travelers, drifters and violent men in… Read more about this item

The Circle Game by Margaret Atwood. 1966 House of Anansi, later printing, 80 pages. Atwood is an award-winning Canadian poet and novelist, most well-known for the cultural and feminist touchstone Handmaid's Tale. Circle Game, her second book of poems, was the winner of the 1967 Governor General's Award. Condition: Good, price sticker residue and creases on cover, a bit of separation… Read more about this item

The Land Surveyor's Daughter by Ellen Gilchrist. 1979 Lost Roads, first edition, 46 pages. Gilchrist is a Southern author who won the National Book Award for her story collection Victory Over Japan. Her work is steeped in the Southern tradition, witty and wise. Land Surveyor's Daughter was her first book, a collection of poetry, with a small print run. Condition: Good,… Read more about this item

The Owl Remembers: Gaelic Poems Selected and Edited with Notes by John Mackechnie. 1933, 110 pages. Includes poems from the eighth century to the 20th century. Includes the Gaelic and English translation. Condition: Jacket in good+ edition, some chips and browning, book in good+, inscription on first page, foxing "The hand that wrote this, now is gone."

To Bedlam and Part Way Back by Anne Sexton. 1960 Houghton Mifflin, ninth printing, 67 pages. Pulitzer Prize-winner Sexton was a poet who's most well-known poems dealt with mental illness, death, and relationships with her family. She died by suicide at the age of 45. To Bedlam was her first book. According to the New York Times in reviewing a… Read more about this item

Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, translated by George Dillon and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Preface by Miss Millay. 1936 Harper & Brothers, first thus edition, 282 pages. Both Dillon and Millay were renown, Pulitzer Prize-winning poets, so it is fitting that they provided this translation of the influential French poet Baudelaire and his most famous work. Includes the original… Read more about this item

Necessities of Life by Adrienne Rich. 1966 Knopf, first paperback printing, 79 pages. According to Rich's obituary in the New York Times: "Adrienne Rich, a poet of towering reputation and towering rage, whose work — distinguished by an unswerving progressive vision and a dazzling, empathic ferocity — brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse… Read more about this item

Green Song by Edith Sitwell. 1946 View Editions, first U.S. edition, 49 pages. Sitwell was a British critic and poet, known for her lavish costumes, which became the butt of many jokes, and for her wit and support of other writers. The Green Song was published in the middle of her career. Condition: Jacket acceptable with chips and tears, book in… Read more about this item

Seven Ages by Louise Gluck. 2001 Harper Collins, first edition, 68 pages. Gluck is a Nobel-winning poet and essayist. This was Gluck's ninth volume. According to Kirkus Reviews: "The genius of her poems lies in their ability to sear the summertime onto our souls in such a way that its 'light will give us no peace.'" Condition: Near fine. "It came to… Read more about this item

New Directions in Prose & Poetry. Edited by James Laughlin IV, 1966 New Directions. This was the first publication by the legendary publisher, and includes work by Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Henry Miller, Kay Boyle, Elizabeth Bishop, and more. According to Triolet Rare Books: "Gallup states that 513 copies total were printed, of which 204 were in boards." Condition: Book in… Read more about this item

Lustra by Ezra Pound. 1916 Elkin Matthews, first thus, one of about 800 copies printed (previously privately printed edition was 200 copies with nine additional poems) 116 pages. This is a collection of early poems, some of which previously appeared in Poetry and Smart Set. Pound was one of the major figures in the early modernist movement and his influence… Read more about this item

Blue Pastures by Mary Oliver. 1995 Harcourt Brace/ Harvest Original, first paperback edition, 122 pages. Mary Oliver was a Pulitzer and National Book Award winning prolific poet who was greatly inspired by nature. Her career in poetry was unusual in that her books actually sold well. In her New York Times obituary: "For her abiding communion with nature, Ms. Oliver… Read more about this item

The Earth-Bound by Janet Lewis. 1946 Wells College Press, one of 300 copies, 47 pages. Lewis was a novelist, librettist, and poet. Theodore Roethke described her work, in Poetry, "[...]is marked by an absolute integrity of spirit and often by the finality in phrasing that can accompany such integrity." Earth-Bound was her third collection. Condition: Good. Discoloring on back board. "Sun creeps… Read more about this item

Flesh and Paper by Suniti Namjoshi and Gillian Hanscombe. 1986 Ragweed Press, first edition, 64 pages. This dialogue in poems is sensual and lesbian-centered between Indian poet and fabulist Namjoshi and author and activist Hanscombe. Condition: VG. Price sticker residue on back cover. "Now we must, creature by creature, number the ways she has lost us."

A New Song by Langston Hughes. 1938 International Workers Order, 31 pages. Among the many services provided by the IWO was publishing important civic literature cheaply and affordably. More than 15 poems, including "Let American Be America Again." Condition: Good. Browning to cover and pages, quite worn and spine with a lot of rubbing away, top staple hole open. Intact and… Read more about this item

Two Poems (hitherto unpublished) by Gertrude Stein. 1948 Banyan Press, first edition, #332 of 415 copies made, 4 pages. Stein was one of the most influential modernists, writers, and hosts of the early 1900s Paris. These poems were published by Stein's longtime partner, Alice Toklas, after Stein's death. Condition: Good. 3-inch tear on back cover, pencil notes on inside front cover. "Believe… Read more about this item