Clark, Tom

Easter Sunday

ISBN: 0918273277
Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1987. Limited First Edition. Softcover. One of only four copies numbered & signed by Tom Clark, also with signed autograph poem & hand-initialed artwork reproduction. "Easter Sunday joins recent poems by Tom Clark with rediscovered and revised earlier poems to form a book that expresses the abiding spirit of this poet's entire work. "One comes more and more to think of a poet as somebody who's not so much owner or proprietor as simple custodian of poems entrusted to his care by the language," Clark says. "Another way of saying this is that the poet's proper work is listening to the conversation that takes place between the parts of the poem he's set in motion, and doing everything he can to further that dialogue...That kind of listening work tends to go on for a lifetime, and the poems in Easter Sunday represent a project only slightly less lengthy, 1962-1987, to be exact." " (front flap) A collection of the first quarter-century's worth of selected & revised poems by Tom Clark (1941-2018), the great American poet, editor, novelist, biographer & artist who most exemplifies our category of "The Prolific & Underappreciated", & who deserves a revived devotion by scholars & collectors. A trade-format softcover-hybrid production in sewn binding by the venerable Coffee House Press, featuring illustrated wrappers with flaps affixed to thin, flexible boards at inner front & back covers. With back cover contemporary photo portrait of Clark by the noted photographer Chris Felver. Hand-written (in black & red inks) colophon reads in its entirety: "#4 of 4/ (signed) Tom Clark." On the blank front endpaper, Clark has hand-written a four-line poem in bold blue ink, signed boldly in red ink. Reproduction of a Clark artwork (apparently the same work as front cover with different colors) is affixed to the title page, hand-initialed by Clark just below its lower right edge. The manner of this volume's assembly as described above appears to us like a prototype, probably exclusive to the four very special copies of which this is one. An exceedingly rare, outstanding collectible in the vast Clark canon. In very fine condition with only thin, mild glue residue at/ near seam between inner front cover & front endpaper (undoubtedly as issued & with no effect to signed poem on front endpaper); otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Very Fine. [Item #3900]

Price: $100.00 save 20% $80.00