Yevtushenko, Yevgeny

Flowers & Bullets

San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1970. Second Printing. Stapled Wrappers. "The Statue of Liberty's color/ Grows ever more deathly pale/ As, loving freedom with bullets/ And taking liberty with bullets,/ You shoot at yourself, America." ("Freedom To Kill," first stanza, pg. 7) Two poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933-2017), the great Russian poet. "Freedom To Kill" (quoted above) expresses Yevtushenko's reaction to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968; "Flowers & Bullets" to the killing of Allison Krause & other students by National Guardsmen at Kent State University in 1970. All text in English, translated from the Russian by Anthony Kahn & Lawrence Ferlinghetti respectively, as acknowledged by Yevtushenko preceding the poems. A chapbook production of Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books, this is the second printing as stated on copyright page. According to Cook's CLB definitive descriptive bibliography, 5000 copies of this second printing were produced during April 1971 (No. 83, pgs. 89-90). A quintessential work of American 1960s countercultural protest by the Russian master, in its second-rarest form. In fine condition with mild rubbing, browning & spotting to front, back covers & stapled spine; a bit of wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; staples in process of rusting with slight exterior & interior bleeding; mild spotting to edges of text block. Interior very fine with only slight bleeding noted above; a few short, faint creases to some page leaves; tiny bumps at corners of a few of same. Fine. [Item #3931]

Price: $20.00 save 20% $16.00