Snyder, Gary

Earth House Hold

New York, NY: New Directions Books, 1969. First Softcover Edition, Fifth Printing. Softcover. Inscribed & signed by Gary Snyder. "Both Pound and Williams have shown how a good poet can revitalize prose style. Earth House Hold (a play on the root meanings of "ecology") drawn from Gary Snyder's essays and journals, may prove a landmark for the new generation." (from back cover) A now-classic collection of writings by Gary Snyder, a Founding Father of the Beat Generation/ San Francisco Renaissance, prescient environmentalist & American literary-cultural icon. As of this writing, Snyder is still going strong as he will soon turn ninety years old. This volume gathers prose jottings & poetic-philosophical musings on a vast array of subject matter, ranging from the literary to the cultural, the anthropological to the ecological. As with his Beat cohort Allen Ginsberg's Indian Journals, it is in many ways a poet's book of prose- for it is a record of Snyder's acute sense of what Ginsberg referred to as "grounding" in poetics, that is of being able to write about what we see, undistracted by "thunderstorms of mind" & thereby grasping the importance or peculiarity of what's right in front of us. This is the first softcover edition, originally published simultaneously with the hardcover edition by James Laughlin's famously fearless New Directions imprint, fifth printing as stated on copyright page (a very popular Snyder production, it quickly went through many printings). On the title page, in thick brown ink, Snyder has hand-written: "For ("James" crossed out) Doug Strong/ (hand-drawn symbol)/ (signed) Gary Snyder/ (having misheard the name. But/ the spirit is the same!)." A pillar in the Snyder canon; most collectible with this unique, interesting inscription & signature. In near-fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing to front, back covers & spine; mild wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; mild rubbing, light browning at edges of text block. Interior very fine with only light browning to inner covers & endpapers; tiny bumps at upper corners of some page leaves. Near Fine. [Item #3439]

Price: $85.00 save 20% $68.00