Peters, Robert

Kane (Review Copy)

ISBN: 0877751692
Greensboro, NC: Unicorn Press, Inc., 1985. First Edition. Softcover. "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 softcover edition, an advance review copy with small sheet loosely laid in between inner front cover & first blank page, announcing a simultaneous "Publication Date: March 1, 1986" for this & the hardcover edition. The copyright page states 1985 as copyright/ publication date, so we have used that year to date this volume. Trade-format softcover, a handsome production with oval portrait of Kane on front cover. A rare & desirable Peters collectible, in very fine condition with only the slightest rubbing, occasional faint scratching to glossy front, back covers & spine; very light wear & a few tiny bumps & short, faint creases at edges & corners of same. Interior very fine with only tiny bumps at corners of just a few page leaves. Review copy notice sheet in very fine condition with very light browning & waving at-near right edge; fragment of clear tape, not yellowed, at blank upper margin & edge. Very Fine. [Item #3307]

Price: $25.00 save 20% $20.00