THE WEATHER OF WORDS: POETIC INVENTION

New York City, NY: Alfred A Knopf, 2000. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Alfred A Knopf, 2000. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 160 pages. Retrospective collection of essays. One of Mark Strand's finest achievements. 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. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Mark Strand's "The Weather of Words: Poetic Invention". Brilliant essays on poetry, nothing less than a Master Class from a poet who had a parallel career as an academic. "We sit with the teenaged Mark Strand while he reads for the first time a poem that amazes him, 'You, Andrew Marvell', by Archibald MacLeish, in which night sweeps in an unstoppable but exhilarating circle around the earth toward the speaker standing at noon. The essay evokes, through its form and content, the poem's theme - time's circular passage - with the young Strand first happening upon the poem, the older Strand seeing into it differently, but still amazed" (Publisher's blurb) . Among other subjects, Strand explores the relationship between photographs and poems, the eternal nature of the lyric, the contemporary use of old forms, an alphabet of poetic influences. He explores the crucial task of poets and their readers, who must together attempt the impossible: To understand through language what lies beyond words. An absolute "must-have" title for Mark Strand collectors. 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. 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 0375409114.