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308 x 197 mm. (12 x 7 3/4"). 24 pp., [2] leaves. Publisher's quarter tan morocco over marbled paper boards. In a tan buckram clamshell box with morocco label. With a frontispiece illustration by John Alcorn. In especially fine condition, including the box. Produced by up-and-coming printers, this very rarely seen edition of Tate's poetry is a result of his career as an educator as well as a writer. Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet James Tate (1943-2015) wrote character-driven, often narrative poems that balanced the absurd with the heartbreaking. In a 2006 interview with Charles Simic for the "Paris Review," Tate reflects on his own work, saying: "There is nothing better than [to move the reader deeply]. I love my funny poems, but I'd rather break your heart. And if I can do both in the same poem, that's the best. If you laughed earlier in the poem, and I bring you close to tears in the end, that's the best." In "Just Shades," containing 12 previously published poems, Tate contemplates a range of everyday experiences--sitting in a hotel room, encountering neighbors--with wrenching sadness and comical vulgarity. Assembled while Tate was a visiting author serving as the Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama, this collection was the second in a series designed, printed, and bound by the university's M.F.A. book arts students. The memorable frontispiece was provided by John Alcorn (1935-92), whose colorful and often psychedelic illustrations graced everything from children's books to Federico Fellini films. In the frontispiece here, the author gazes smugly over his shoulder at the viewer, an invitation into the rich and dreamlike world of the poems. This copy is from the collection of Laure-Anne Bosselaar (b. 1943) and her husband Kurt Brown (1944-2013). Bosselaar is a Belgian-American poet, translator, and editor who has published numerous works of poetry in multiple languages, including five collections of her own works. She has received various prizes and recognitions (Pushcart, Isabella Gardner, Breadloaf) and was named Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara in 2019. Sometimes publishing jointly with Bosselaar, Brown was also a prolific poet and editor of anthologies, as well as the founder and first director of the Aspen Writer's Conference, playing a pivotal role in shaping its early vision and establishing Aspen as a literary center. As a reflection of this work's very limited press run, we could find no listing in auction records or among current online dealer offerings. No. 17 OF 55 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR.
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