Peters, Robert

Kane

ISBN: 0877751684
Greensboro, NC: Unicorn Press, Inc., 1985. First Edition. Hardcover. Inscribed & signed by Robert Peters to James Perrizo. "Kane continues (my) experiments with poetry as history/biography...Elisha Kent Kane, the arctic explorer, was an immensely popular American hero who is now largely forgotten...Kane was driven by his mortality to crowd his life because he knew it would be brief. He was trained in medicine, had a commission in the U.S. Navy, and regarded himself as a geologist and climatologist. He kept careful records in the arctic, even when it seemed his expedition was doomed and he would never see home again. His journals, superbly written, have been of immense help to me...(one of them) so detailed and beautifully written I had to resist simply turning chunks of it into a form of verse. He is one of the master travel-writers of the age." (from Author's Preface) A volume of poems in seven parts by Robert Peters (1924-2014), the great American poet, playwright, critic & scholar. Peters' prolific oeuvre features intensive "voice portraits" where he (very successfully, we think) captures the thoughts & experiences of historic figures, mostly undeservedly half-forgotten, who flourished during the Victorian era, which was his original scholarly specialty. Kane (1820-1857) is an exemplary subject of Peters' inspired approach of "poetry as history/biography" as he defined it in his preface noted above. Also with brief author biography, & (uncredited) contemporary illustrations that evoke Kane & co.'s adventures interspersed throughout. This is the first hardcover edition, published simultaneously with the softcover edition & without dust jacket as apparently issued. As noted on copyright page, 100 copies of an "entirely different" version of this work was produced by a different publisher seven years earlier (1978). There also was a signed version of this edition, and although this copy is not therefrom, Peters has hand-inscribed & signed on the title page: "For Jim-/ Kane was hardly as faded a/ gent as he appears on this/ cover!/ (signed) Robert/ doodle-flourish (of flower?)." "Jim" is James Perrizo (1944-2006), a devoted Beat-&-Beyond collector & scholar who was a friend of & corresponded extensively with Peters. The reference to the "faded" image of Kane is to that printed on front cover cloth, which along with spine lettering is indeed somewhat faded- Peters was therefore referring critically to a production flaw as issued. A rare & desirable Peters collectible, especially with this inscription, association & provenance. In very fine condition with very slight rubbing mostly along edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; faded image & lettering apparently as issued noted above; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Very Fine. [Item #3303]

Price: $50.00 save 20% $40.00