BLIZZARD OF ONE: POEMS by Strand, Mark - 1998

New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 55 pages. Retrospective collection of poems. One of the finest American poetry collections of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. The First Edition is now scarce. The elegant Minimalist abstract painting that is reproduced on the DJ cover is by Mark Strand. Presents Mark Strand's "Blizzard of One: Poems". One of his most beautiful collections. Consisting largely of allusions, homages, and celebrations of literature and art, they include such classics as "In Memory of Joseph Brodsky", "The Delirium Waltz", and poem-tributes to Giorgio diChirico, Jorie Graham, Octavio Paz, and William Bailey, among others, demonstrating that among American poets, only John Ashbery (whom Strand admires even if the latter is his opposite stylistically) commands comparable allusiveness and cosmopolitanism. "Strand continues to acknowledge his debt to Wallace Stevens while taking the impulse to a further level of abstraction. No poet has been able to make more out of a Minimalist aesthetic than Mark Strand. He strives for elegance and masterful brevity, and whether he's working his ominous or light-fingered register, his formalism is never precious, and is always an agent of necessity" (Mark Rudman) . One example: "Boredom sets in first, and then despair. / One tries to brush it off. / It only grows. / Something about the silence of the square. / Something is wrong; something about the air, / Its color; about the light, the way it glows. / Boredom sets in first, and then despair" (Mark Strand) . An absolute "must-have" title for Mark Strand collectors. <b><i> This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Mark Strand. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great collection. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws or are subsequent printings. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. </b></i> Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for "Blizzard of One: Poems". America's Poet Laureate in 1990 and 1991. One of the greatest poets of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER MARK STRAND TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0375401393.