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Third printing of the true first edition. With illustrations by Sidney Nolan, and a jacket illustration by Francis Parker. ***Near fine in black cloth-covered boards with gilt and metallic red titles to the spine. Sidney Nolan designed blind-embossed drawing to the front board with 'RL' initials. Boards clean and unmarked. Fore-edge and top of text block lightly foxed. Head and tail of spine not bumped. Corners sharp. Spine tight. No inscriptions. No foxing to the pages. Pages clean. ***In a very good illustrated dustwrapper, which has been top corner price-clipped. The dustwrapper is complete, with just very slight loss at the head of the spine and tops of foldovers. Edges of dustwrapper slightly creased and browned. No chips. No tears. Some small marks to the dustwrapper (being a light cream background). Red lettering to the spine of the dustwrapper slightly faded. ***240mm x 200mm. 125 pages. ***"'Pity the planet, all joy gone from this sweet volcanic cone; peace to our children when they fall in small war on the heels of small war - until the end of time to police the earth, a ghost orbiting forever lost in our monotonous sublime." This final stanza of "Waking Early Sunday Morning" exemplifies the dark themes of Robert Lowell's new book. This long opening poem is the first of a sequence of five poems that continues with "Fourth of July in Main," "The Opposite House," "Central Park," and "Near the Ocean." This sequence is followed by two short poems, "1958" and "For Theodore Roethke." ***Mr. (Sidney) Nolan, the distinguished Australian painter, has made twenty-one drawings for this book.' (Quote taken from the publisher's blurb on the front and rear flaps.) ***'Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (Mar 01 1917 - Sep 12 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the Mayflower. His family, past and present, were important subjects in his poetry. Growing up in Boston also informed his poems, which were frequently set in Boston and the New England region. The literary scholar Paula Hayes believes that Lowell mythologized New England, particularly in his early work. Lowell stated, "The poets who most directly influenced me --- were Allen Tate, Elizabeth Bishop, and William Carlos Williams. An unlikely combination! --- but you can see that Bishop is a sort of bridge between Tate's formalism and Williams's informal art." Lowell wrote in both formal, metered verse as well as free verse; his verse in some poems from "Life Studies" and "Notebook" fell somewhere in between metered and free verse. After the publication of his 1959 book "Life Studies", which won the 1960 National Book Award and "featured a new emphasis on intense, uninhibited discussion of personal, family, and psychological struggles," he was considered an important part of the confessional poetry movement. However, much of Lowell's work, which often combined the public with the personal, did not conform to a typical "confessional poetry" model. Instead, Lowell worked in a number of distinctive stylistic modes and forms over the course of his career.' [Wiki] ***A third printing of the true American first edition of "Near the Ocean" by Robert Lowell, in nice collectable condition. A beautifully produced book, which is enhanced by being fully illustrated with Sidney Nolan's drawings. Uncommon to find in the UK. ***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.
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