MARIGOLD AND ROSE: A FICTION by Gluck, Louise - 2022

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 55 pages. The poet's debut work of fiction, and last book. One of Louise Gluck'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. Presents Louise Gluck's "Marigold And Rose: A Fiction". Magical, incandescent, and sublime: An imaginative view of the world of babyhood as human "spatial" consciousness, that is to say, BEFORE "temporal" consciousness, or time. Time traps humans, but not babies, as beings-in-time, as beings-in-the-world, and therefore inescapably, as beings-towards-death (in Gluck's neat, poetic reversal of Heidegger's Existentialist philosophy). As grownups, that curious word, we then attempt to defy time by positing an after-time that we call the afterlife. "Imagine a fairy tale that is also a multi-generational saga; a piece for two hands that is also a symphony; a poem that is also, in the spirit of Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis', an incandescent act of autobiography. Shot through with a sense of stoic wonder, this small miracle of a book, following thirteen books of poetry and two collections of essays, is unlike anything Gluck has written, while at the same time it is transcendent" (Publisher's blurb). Her last book, it is as though the great poet needed to say something in prose that is nevertheless unlike any prose or fiction we expect or are accustomed to: Gluck's "statement" on life as joyful beginning. Louise Gluck (unexpectedly) died on October 13, 2023 at the age of 80. An absolute "must-have" title for Louise Gluck collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen upon her bookplate by Louise Gluck. Supplied by Gluck herself, the bookplate is beautiful and neatly pasted in front. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know, this is the only copy (with Signed Bookplate) of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws (because of the easily soiled white DJ) or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1985 for "The Triumph of Achilles". Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for "The Wild Iris". America's Poet Laureate in 2003 and 2004. Winner of the Nobel Prize For Literature in 2020. One of the greatest poet/writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER LOUISE GLUCK TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374607583.