Dear Editor: A history of 'Poetry' in Letters: The First Fifty Years 1912-1962

Parisi, Joseph & Stephen Young, editors

ISBN 10: 0393050920 / ISBN 13: 9780393050929

Published by W. W. Norton & Company, New York/ London, 2002

About this Item

Candid letters revealing the development of modern poetry in 'Poetry', the influential magazine founded by Harriet Monroe in 1912. SIGNED on the title page by both editors. First edition (first printing) with full number string. Hardcover, brown spine over tan boards, gilt titling. Light wear to book; jacket lightly edgeworn with partly removed sticker on rear panel, causing minor damage; anothr sticker removed from front flap causing worse damage. Text clean; xix, [3], 473 pages; index, b/w photos, facsimile letters. Size: Large Octavo.

Seller Inventory # q0317

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Dear Editor: A history of 'Poetry' in Letters: The First Fifty Years 1912-1962
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, New York/ London
• Publication Date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0393050920
• ISBN 13: 9780393050929
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Editor
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • Signed Books
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

Poignant, hilarious, and brutally frank, Dear Editor reveals the personalities and untold stories behind the creation of modern poetry.

"The history of poetry and Poetry in America are almost interchangeable, certainly inseparable," A. R. Ammons wrote. Dear Editor, in gathering over 600 surprisingly candid letters to and from the editors of Poetry, traces the development of poetry in America: Ezra Pound's opinion of T. S. Eliot ("It is such a comfort to meet a man and not have to tell him to wash his face, wipe his feet") and of Robert Frost ("dull as ditch water...[but] set to be 'literchure' someday"); Edna St. Vincent Millay's pleas for an advance ("I am become very, very thin, and have taken to smoking Virginia tobacco"); Wallace Stevens on himself ("I have a pretty well-developed mean streak"). Here are the inside stories, the rivalries between aspiring authors, the inspirations behind classics, the practicalities (and politicking) of publishing. In fascinating anecdotes and literary gossip, scores of poets offer insights into the creative process and their reactions to historic events.

About the Authors

Joseph Parisi, editor in chief of Poetry, has been on the magazine's staff for over twenty-five years.

Stephen Young is senior editor of Poetry.

Billy Collins was the Poet Laureate of the United States and the State of New York. He is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College and a Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute. A Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and author of many collections of poetry, including Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds and Horoscopes for the Dead, he lives in Westchester, New York.