BREAK, BLOW, BURN: CAMILLE PAGLIA READS FORTY-THREE OF THE WORLD'S BEST POEMS

New York City, NY: Pantheon Books, 2005. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Pantheon Books, 2005. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 247 pages. The author's third collection of essays. One of Camille Paglia'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 by Pantheon Books as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Camille Paglia's "Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of The World's Best Poems". Her first book since "Vamps And Tramps" (1994), a decade-long hiatus. Close readings of self-contained poems. "America's premier intellectual provocateur explores and celebrates a series of great poems of the Western tradition, including some surprising discoveries of her own. She brings new energy and insight to our understanding of poems we already know such as masterpieces by Shakespeare, Donne, Shelley, Dickinson, Lowell, and Plath. She leads us to appreciate the artistry of writers with whom we may not be familiar such as Chuck Wachtel and Wanda Coleman. She hails the songwriter Joni Mitchell as a major contemporary poet. Daring, erudite, entertaining, and infused throughout with Paglia's inimitable style and passion, this beautifully written book, and the dazzling mind behind it, will entice readers to begin or renew a passionate engagement with poetry" (Publisher's blurb). The close examination of a text, word for word, is a lost art. Whatever one's feelings about the rebarbative author ("American Feminism's worst nightmare"), this is an engaging and valuable book. Whatever its ultimate destiny, it occupies a crucial place in her oeuvre. An absolute "must-have" title for Camille Paglia collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in blue ink-pen on the title page by Camille Paglia. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Paglia's signature fills up the 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, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. One of the most important and influential American writer/intellectuals of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CAMILLE PAGLIA TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0375420843.