Paterson. Books 1-5 by Williams, William Carlos - 1958

LONDON: MacGIBBON & KEE. BOUND IN BROWN CLOTH WITH BRIGHT GILT TITLES TO SPINE, THIS DATED 1964 HARDCOVER FIRST ENGLISH EDITION IS VG IN VG JACKET(UNCLIPPED). 184pp WITH AUTHOR'S NOTE, PREFACE, BOOKS 1 TO V OF PROSE AND VERSE. WRITES ROBERT LOWELL, "PATERSON IS WHITMAN'S AMERICA GROWN PATHETIC AND TRAGIC" THE COMPLETE POEM IS PUBLISHED HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME, AND THIS IS POET ALAN DIXON'S PERSONAL COPY, AND HE HAS SIGNED IT ON THE FFEP. VERY MINOR FOXINF TO TOP OF JACKET'S REAR PANEL, OTHERWISE ALL VG/VG . Very Good. Hardcover. First English Edition. 1964.

New York: New Directions, 1958. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/fair. 5 volumes, uniformly bound in grayish-cream-yellow cloth, each in dust jacket. Books themselves are generally very good: Book I with some darkening and soil to covers, heavy offsetting/tanning to endpapers and text quite tanned as well; Book II is very good and clean with usual light offsetting to endpapers; Book III is very good with only light wear and toning; Book IV is very good, light corner bumping, owner's name on flyleaf; Book V is very good, light soil and offsetting. Jackets range from fair to very good: Book I has general darkening and wear, with 1.5" loss to top and bottom of spine, light wear and loss along the outer joints; Book II is good or better with general darkening, soil and light edgewear; Book III good or better with usual toning, darkening, soil, light wear to spine tips; Book IV with general darkening and soil, scattered water splatter stains to front panel, toning and light edgewear; Book V with… Read More

New York: New Directions, 1958. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/good. 5 volumes, uniformly bound in grayish-cream-yellow cloth, all books very good with some offsetting to endpapers and light toning to texts, third volume with "19 cents" stamped in ink on flyleaf, fourth volume with light foxing to the binding. Jackets range from good to very good: Book I has 4" tear to top of front panel, general light soil and darkening, light wear, small charcoal streak above title on front panel; Book II is good to very good with general toning and darkening, especially to edges and spine; Book II with light wear, toning, darkening and soil, small tear and attendant creases to upper right corner of rear panel; Book IV with similar toning, darkening, light wear and soil, some signs of waterstains to bottom of spine area and along middle-right of front panel; Book V with general toning and darkening, small faint stains to front panel, light stains and soil to rear panel. Not the prettiest set, but in their… Read More

New York: New Directions, 1958. First edition. Cloth. Near Fine/very good. Complete in five volumes. First editions of Williams' magnum opus and a Connolly 100 title. All five books in lovely near fine condition in tan cloth with color bands (different for each volume). All in price-intact dustwrappers. Spine lettering to Volume IV and V are bright and legible. Each volume's wrapper has some toning, or light stains or minor offsets, but overall, a very pleasing set. Only the wrapper to Volume V has a couple of small chips to the edges. Housed in a sturdy cloth-covered slipcase with printed spine label.

(New York): New Directions, 1958. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. First editions. Five volumes. Each volume is fine in a modestly soiled, very good to near fine dustwrappers as follows: *Book One* has modest age-toning; *Book Two* has a tear on the spine, and is moderately soiled, it is also an Advance Review Copy with slip and publisher's promotional material laid in; *Book Three* is modestly soiled, and is price clipped; *Book Four* is a trifle soiled and has a modest dampstain at the crown, and bears Malcolm Cowley's ownership Signature; *Book Five* is an Advance Review Copy with slip and author's photo laid in. A nice, just about uniform sets of one of the great American poetry cycles. Volume Two won the National Book Award. The textured paper of the dustwrappers lends itself to soiling. Virtually all sets that one sees are so afflicted, this set virtually free of soiling, has a trace of age-toning at the extremities, and is one of the nicer sets we have seen. *Connolly 100*.

New York: New Directions, (1946-58). First Edition. Hardcover. Short tear to the front panel of the dustwrapper of the second volume, occasional internal tape reinforcement. Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrappers with only light wear and soiling. Five volumes, all First Editions in dustwrappers. The first four books limited to 1000 copies, the fifth to 3000. Williams's masterpiece, SIGNED by the poet in an early hand on the front free endpaper of the first volume and quite scarce thus. CONNOLLY 100, the one hundredth key book in Connolly's listing: "The long poem has many moods and includes quotations from letters by Pound and Ginsberg, large Seurat-like canvases of the Park on Sunday, intimate Bonnard-like interiors, uproarious comedy ... his poem is written with a deep aversion to all forms of pretentiousness, rhetoric or prepared effects; it runs eddying along, broken by old letters, bits of local history and limpid love lyrics."