Dream Work.

OLIVER, Mary.

Published by Boston & New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986

Rare proof copy of the first edition, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "Provincetown, January 1991. Good wishes to Richard and Rebecca, Mary Oliver". This, the Pulitzer-prize winning poet's darkest and perhaps best collection, includes the first appearance of her most-loved poem, "Wild Geese". This title was inscribed in Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where Oliver spent most of her writing career, and was "regarded as a cross between a celebrity recluse and a village oracle. 'I very much wished not to be noticed, and to be left alone, and I sort of succeeded', she has said. She tells of being greeted regularly at the hardware store by the local plumber; he would ask how her work was going, and she his: 'There was no sense of éliteness or difference'. On the morning the Pulitzer was announced, she was scouring the town dump for shingles to use on her house. A friend who had heard the news noticed her there and joked, 'Looking for your old manuscripts?'" (Franklin). Ruth Franklin, "What Mary Oliver's Critics Don't Understand", New Yorker, 20 November 2017. Octavo. Original green wrappers lettered in black. Spine lightly sunned, foot just bumped with short closed tear to front joint, head of spine slightly rubbed, faint marks to front wrapper. A near-fine copy. Seller Inventory # 158824

Bibliographic Details

Title: Dream Work.
Publisher: Boston & New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: 1st Edition