Flesh and Blood [INSCRIBED AND SIGNED FIRST EDITION]

Williams, C. K.; Williams, Charles K.

ISBN 10: 0374156360 / ISBN 13: 9780374156367

Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987

About this Item

Here's a unique association copy of this winner of the 1987 National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry. This book has been inscribed by the author TWICE, once on the front free flyleaf and again on the rear free flyleaf, dated one day apart, correcting the previous error in signing (with the words "upside down" written upside down). The book also is simply signed by the poet on the title page. The pristine dust jacket is beautifully preserved inside a Mylar sleeve, and the book itself, a first printing from the first edition, is in fine condition. Finally, the "Roger" to whom the book is inscribed is the author, poet, publisher and professor, Roger Lathbury, a noted literary figure in the Washington, DC area for decades, perhaps best known for his expertise on the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, W.H. Auden, Bob Dylan, and his friendship with the reclusive J.D. Salinger. Please see my attached photos of this book and the various inscriptions/signatures. Seller Inventory # 2RB8

Bibliographic Details

Title: Flesh and Blood [INSCRIBED AND SIGNED FIRST ...

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

Publication Date: 1987

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: As New

Signed: Inscribed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

Flesh and Blood, the fifth collection by C. K. Williams, was awarded the 1987 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Reviewing it in The New York Times Book Review, Edward Hirsch noted that the book's compression and exactitude gave it "the feeling of a contemporary sonnet sequence." Hirsch added: "Like Berryman's Dream Songs or Lowell's Notebooks, Mr. Williams's short poems are shapely yet open-minded and self-generative, loosely improvisational though with an underlying formal necesity."

From Library Journal:

Since With Ignorance ( LJ 6/15/77) , Williams has been honing a distinct, visually recognizable style that stretches the lines of his verse from margin to margina style not necessarily suited to standard book format. In this newest collection, consisting of 130 8-line stanzas, these long, breathy lines make his poems lean toward a prosy, conversational voice: "After a string of failed romances and intensely remarked sexual adven-/ tures she'd finally married." But Williams is also capable of the strong, lyrical moment, as in his moving elegy to friend and fellow poet Paul Zweig: "Scents of dawn, the softening all-night fire, char, ash, warm ember in the/ early morning chill./ The moment holds, you move across the path and go, the light lifts, breaks:/ goodbye, my friend, farewell." A good choice for contemporary poetry collections. Thom Tammaro, Multidisciplinary Studies Dept., Moorhead State Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.