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Selected Poems and Translations: 1969 - 1991
by MATTHEWS, William
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0395631211
- ISBN 13
- 9780395631218
- Seller
-
Gloucester City, New Jersey, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First edition. Fine in fine dust jacket. Advance Review Copy with publisher letter laid in.
Synopsis
"The road is what the car drinks/traveling on its tongue of light/all the way home." With lines like these William Matthews has created a body of work that stands alone in American poetry. Witty, sophisticated, yet lucid, his poems bring the reader refreshing insights into the everyday world of sports, music, wine, psychology, homes, pets, love, children, and literature. In the course of a brilliant career Matthews has also translated poems from French, Latin, and Bulgarian. In this first selection culled from his complete body of work, readers who have never sampled Matthews's poetry, or who cannot find it in print, will be able to take the measure of one of our most versatile and original poets. Matthews characteristically watches "the lights come on/in the valley, like bright type/being set in another language." Illuminating and thoughtful, his poems speak the truth in a way that prompted Peter Stitt, one of our most respected critics, to write that "William Matthews may be the wisest poet of his generation." In writing about W.H. Auden, Matthews could be describing himself: "The language has used him/ well and passed him through./We get what he has collected." This book, which includes some previously uncollected poems and translations, also draws on nine previous volumes: Ruining the New Road, Sleek for the Long Flight, Sticks & Stones, Rising and Falling, Selected Translations from Jean Follain, Flood, A Happy Childhood (that astonishing collection of poems with titles from Freud), Foreseeable Futures, and Blues If You Want, as well as translations from Martial and contemporary Bulgarian poets. "Our true subject is loneliness," he writes. "We've been divorced 1.5 times/per heart." "But think/with your body: not to be dead is to be/sexual, vivid, tender and harsh, a riot/of mixed feelings, and able to choose."
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Details
- Seller
- Between the Covers- Rare Books, Inc. ABAA
(US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 572090
- Title
- Selected Poems and Translations: 1969 - 1991
- Author
- MATTHEWS, William
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0395631211
- ISBN 13
- 9780395631218
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin Company
- Place of Publication
- Boston
- Date Published
- 1992
- Keywords
- Poetry, AmerLit20thCent, AdvanceCopy
- Bookseller catalogs
- Poetry;
Terms of Sale
Between the Covers- Rare Books, Inc. ABAA
All books are first editions unless otherwise noted. All books are returnable within ten days if returned in the same condition as sent. We accept VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS, DISCOVER, PAYPAL, checks and money orders. New Jersey residents please add 6.625% sales tax. All items guaranteed, all items subject to prior sale. Members ABAA, ILAB. Shipping is $4.50 for Media Mail, $10.00 for Priority Mail or UPS Ground. Tracking is provided for every order. Alternate shipping available by request. Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.
About the Seller
Between the Covers- Rare Books, Inc. ABAA
Biblio member since 2005
Gloucester City, New Jersey
About Between the Covers- Rare Books, Inc. ABAA
Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc., founded in 1985, specializes in first editions of 20th Century American and English fiction. Our inventory of over 75,000 first editions includes: African-American literature & history, Mysteries, Detective Fiction, Drama, Books into Film and Sports books. We routinely issue extensively illustrated color catalogs, available by subscription. We are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA)and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). Tom Congalton, founder of Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc., actively promotes the ethics and standards of these professional organizations and served as President of the ABAA from 2000 to 2002.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- 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...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Advance Review Copy
- Advance Review Copy, a specially printed copy of the book, generally paperback, which has been produced and distributed by the...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
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