"A": 22 & 23 - Softcover
The new, authoritative edition of “A”: the monumental lifepoem by one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century, Louis Zukofsky.
River that must turn full after I stop dyingSong, my song, raise grief to music
Light as my loves’ thought, the few sick
So sick of wrangling: thus weeping,
Sounds of light, stay in her keeping
And my son’s face – this much for honor
― from “ ‘A’-11”
At long last, here is the whole of Louis Zukofsky’s epic masterpiece “A” back in print with misprints corrected and a new, fresh introduction by the noted scholar Barry Ahearn. No other poem in the English language is filled with as much daily love, light, intellect, and music. As William Carlos Williams once wrote of Zukofsky’s poetry, “I hear a new music of verse stretching out into the future.”
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Louis Zukofsky spent forty-six years writing his masterwork “A,” and died before he could see the completed version published. Poet, translator, fiction writer, essayist, anthologist, critic, teacher, WPA worker, and binding force of the Objectivist poets, Zukofsky was born in New York City and lived in or near the city his whole life.
Review:
“‘A’ ’s place is in the great line of American personal epic begun in Song of Myself and stretching through the Cantos, Paterson, Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction, and The Dream Songs. It should be read.”
- The Nation
“Zukofsky’s art, in this work, is without equal. No poet of our time can sound the resources of language, so actuate words to become all that they might be thought otherwise to engender.”
- Robert Creeley, The New York Times
“Magnificent: a great poem really rolling in all its power and splendor of language.”
- James Laughlin
“'A' belongs in the company of the major modernist epics such as Pound's Cantos or Williams' Patterson. It will repay as much attention as it is given.”
- Bob Perelman, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The poem is “of a life,” but the life that it presents is closer to life-as-experienced than life as narrated or told. And that, in the final analysis, is precisely the essence of Zukofsky’s genius.”
- Mary Wilson, Make Magazine
- The Nation
“Zukofsky’s art, in this work, is without equal. No poet of our time can sound the resources of language, so actuate words to become all that they might be thought otherwise to engender.”
- Robert Creeley, The New York Times
“Magnificent: a great poem really rolling in all its power and splendor of language.”
- James Laughlin
“'A' belongs in the company of the major modernist epics such as Pound's Cantos or Williams' Patterson. It will repay as much attention as it is given.”
- Bob Perelman, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The poem is “of a life,” but the life that it presents is closer to life-as-experienced than life as narrated or told. And that, in the final analysis, is precisely the essence of Zukofsky’s genius.”
- Mary Wilson, Make Magazine
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherTrigram Press
- Publication date1977
- ISBN 10 0854650563
- ISBN 13 9780854650569
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages76
- Rating
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A" 22&23 [Hardcover edition]
Published by
Trigram Press, 15 Southwark Street, London SE1 in the Year of the Rat
(1977)
ISBN 10: 0854650563
ISBN 13: 9780854650569
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
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Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. First impression of the true first edition - the scarcer issue published in hardcover. There was a simultaneous paperback edition, but a proposed signed limited hardcover edition never materialised. The trade hardback had a much smaller print run than the more commonly found wrappers issue. ***Near fine in light brown cloth covered boards, with silver titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked, with no bumps and sharp corners. Orange front and rear free endpapers and pastedowns. The contents are perfect and clean. No marks. No creases. No tears. As with most Trigram Press publications, the book is printed on nice quality cream laid paper. No inscriptions. Spine tight. ***In a near fine monochrome illustrated dustwrapper with silver and brown titles, retaining the original publisher's price of £3.95 for the cloth edition (and £2.50 for the paperback). Edges of dustwrapper are beautifully sharp, with no creases or tears. Dustwrapper clean and bright. A really nicely preserved wrapper. ***223 mm x 142 mm. 80 pages including a note on the type at the rear: 'The letters and devices used in this book were drawn by Geoffrey Tory of Bourges and were published in his treatise on alphabets "Champ Flury", Paris, MDXXIX.' ***'"In a sense the poem is an autobiography: the words are my life." More than any poet of the 20th century Louis Zukofsky has pursued and established the highest potentiality of language, extending it to limits which few other major writers have been able to reach. "A", which was begun in 1927, is completed in these two sections (24, which was written and published before 22 & 23, is a text set to music by his wife Celia). His precise poetic syntheses are here even more uncompromising than they have been before. The whole poem is one of the sacred voyages of American literature and has had an immense influence on the writings of every poet since who has searched the most meaningful complexities of thought, feeling, language.' ***'Besides being a poet, Asa Benveniste also worked as a printer, a typographer, and as a book designer. In London during 1965, he co-founded and managed the pioneering Trigram Press, which published work by George Barker, Tom Raworth, Jack Hirschman, J. H. Prynne, David Meltzer, B. S. Johnson, Jim Dine, Jeff Nuttall, Gavin Ewart, Ivor Cutler, Anselm Hollo, and Lee Harwood, among others. In 1966, Trigram Press produced the second and final issue of a little magazine called Residu, which included work by Alexander Trocchi, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse, Gregory Corso, Harry Fainlight, Gerard Malanga and other Beat Generation and underground writers.' [Wiki] ***A really clean and well preserved copy of the first hardcover edition of '"A" 22&23', by Louis Zukofsky. Of interest to collectors of the poet's works, and the productions of the Trigram Press. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.***. Seller Inventory # 7506
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