Eshleman, Clayton

Nights We Put The Rock Together with: Fracture

Santa Barbara, CA: Cadmus Editions; Black Sparrow Press, 1980; 1983. Limited First Edition; First Softcover Edition. Softcovers. Two collectible volumes of poetry by Clayton Eshleman, the award-winning American Poet, editor, translator & academician who we were honored to have as our friend & mentor. We enjoyed enlightening conversations with him & his beloved wife Caryl (to whom Fracture is dedicated) at their home near us in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Highly learned, deep, dense & intense, Eshleman's writings exude what this writer has termed "Blood-Spattered Erudition." (1) Nights We Put The Rock Together (1980), trade-format softcover in illustrated overwrap with publisher's glassine protective jacket, one of a total edition of 500 copies, of which this is either one of 374 trade copies or 100 numbered copies per colophon- below "This is copy number" statement therein, no number has been written or stamped. Nevertheless, an exquisite production of the Poltroon Press of Berkeley for the venerable Cadmus Editions, including color image of an ancient relic tipped-in to leaf preceding title page. As Eshleman explains in a postscript note, the poems herein were written during a visit to the Italian Riviera which inspired a period of creative output. [ISBN 0-932274-05-8] See also our item No. 2581 (a special Presentation Edition of this work, inscribed & signed by Eshleman to a noted Czech academic). (2) Fracture (1983), trade-format softcover, a production of the legendary Black Sparrow Press, first unlimited softcover trade edition. Per colophon, in the Black Sparrow tradition, limited hardcover trade-, signed & numbered-, & signed-lettered copies of this edition were produced. Eshleman's lengthy, insightful introduction to this collection explains the poet's inspiration while he & Caryl visited a remote area of France, beginning: "There are only a handful of primary incidents in one's life, incidents powerful enough to create the cracks or boundary lines that one will often enter and follow for many years before another crucial event pounds one deeper or reorients one to a new map. As one approaches these events, omens appear everywhere, the world becomes dangerously magical, as if one had called the gods and the gods were now answering." (pg. 9) [ISBN 0-87685-579-6] Both of these books are from the collection of Erin Black Matson, the late artist-poet who, along with her then-husband the acclaimed poet & educator Clive Matson, were members of the Beat Generation as it morphed into the hippie counterculture during the 1960s. The Matsons were colleagues & protégés (in lifestyle as much as literature) of Herbert Huncke, Bonnie & Ray Bremser, Diane di Prima et al. Between pages 68-69 of (2), we found & have retained a piece of plain, crinkled blue paper used by Erin as a bookmark- perhaps the texts on these pages were of particular significance to her, or are as far as she made it here. Two collectible mid-career classics from the profound & prolific Clayton Eshleman, with distinguished provenance. (1) in very fine condition with only a bit of wear & some tiny bumps, creases to edges & corners of over-wrap & protective jacket; mild spotting to esp. upper & lower edges of text block. Interior substantially mint. (2) fine with mild-to-moderate rubbing, occasional spotting to front, back covers & spine; very slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; a hint of rubbing to edges of text block. Interior very fine with only miniscule bumps at corners of a few page leaves; otherwise substantially mint. Very Fine; Fine. [Item #4910]

Price: $40.00 save 20% $32.00