Malanga, Gerard

Incarnations

Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1974. Limited First Edition. Hardcover. Signed & Numbered by Gerard Malanga, with: Original Manuscript Poem. “Dearest Cristina, how to read Olson: there is nothing that did / not interest him. As a poet, moreover, he would naturally look / for chances to use his dramatic, lyric & didactic powers. So / with his structure firmly determined by its basic economy Olson / was free to range at will, packing every rift with fascinating / details that add so much to his poems. He had time for the / classics, history, mythology, ecology, topography, genealogy / metaphysics, religion, the physical labors that go into sailing a / boat. He gave full rein to his powers because he had found the / inexhaustible vehicle of the personification of Maximus in / himself. The inexhaustibility of the Maximus poems is a consequence of structural unity & continuity of the central / theme, the life of a city: Gloucester. But if you cannot finish the / poem you may begin it & be richer for having begun, & / having started all you need is to pay attention; the Maximus / poems themselves are the rest of the way & the way is marked." (from "how to read olson," pg. 105). "Incarnations" is a volume of poetry by Gerard Malanga, the venerable poet, photographer & key associate of Andy Warhol at the “Factory” during the 1960s. In it, chapters are titled by years, followed by the names (& accompanying, pulchritudinous images—taken and designed by the poet) of Malanga’s myriad muses on the frontispiece of each chapter. Malanga—a decorated swordsman in his time—writes adoringly of the carousel of sylphs whose acquaintance he sought (and whose supine company he enjoyed) from 1965-1971. His ‘relationship poems’ are more worshipful than sexual, but do not stray from the suggestive entirely. One might say “…he drew them like one of his French girls." The women here enshrined in gold-flaked, Klimt-gowned majesty include the beautiful Swedish Model, Agneta Freiberg, and the equally-ravishing Italian model, Benedetta Barzini—perhaps the woman Malanga wrote most lovingly of & prolifically on. A true time capsule of its era, poems compiled here include works composed at New York’s legendary Chelsea Hotel, Andy Warhol’s “Factory,” and other New York landmarks-&-institutions existing eternally in the American Imagination. One of 26 lettered copies handbound in boards by Earle Gray, signed by the poet at colophon & with original unpublished manuscript poem by Malanga included in envelope attached to interior pastedown of front board. Signature at colophon in thin, black fountain pen ink reads: "Gerard Malanga." This is copy "N." An exemplary Black Sparrow Press production, & a most desirable Malanga collectible in its rarest form. Aforementioned accompanying original manuscript consists of a legal size-sheet of paper folded into fourths; the poem preserved thereon was composed in both red & blue pen ink by the poet; corrections, revisions & insertions flutter about the margins--a scholarly delight! [ISBN: 0-87685-219-3]. In very fine condition with only very light rubbing, edgewear to publisher’s clear jacket; minor rubbing, age-typical toning/spotting to topmost fine-edge of front & rear boards; tiny bump to bottom right-hand corner of front board; similar toning/spotting & light browning to text block; interior very fine, substantially mint. Handwritten original manuscript in very fine condition; seemingly untouched by time after insertion into envelope attached to interior pastedown, as issued (see pictures). Very Fine. [Item #4862]

Price: $150.00 save 20% $120.00