Matson, Clive

Chalcedony's Second Ten Songs with: Breath of Inspiration with: Ephemera

ISBN: 9781879457966
Port Townsend, WA; Berkeley, CA: Minotaur Press; Presumptions, 1987; 2009. First Edition; First Edition Thus. Stapled Wrappers. 'Chalcedony's Second Ten Songs' inscribed & signed by Clive Matson to Erin Black Matson & with loose handwritten note from Clive to Erin. "When Chalcedony offers something, I don't have the choice of refusing. I don't have the critical apparatus to make a choice, anyway. She exists outside my ken. I write whatever she wants, and afterwards, sometimes years afterwards, I dive into the poem and hope it will reveal its essence." (from Preface, Chalcedony's Second Ten Songs, pg. iii) Two collectible chapbooks, one especially rare, by Clive Matson (b. 1942), the acclaimed poet & educator: (1) Chalcedony's Second Ten Songs, chapbook in stapled wrappers, first edition with no reference to limitation or colophon, presumed first printing with no reference to further printings on copyright page. In his preface (quoted above), Matson seems to claim that these intense poems were channeled through an imaginary muse-oracle who "sometimes does not have any gender clues" by the name of Chalcedony. With front cover illustration by Kay Carlson. On the title page, below his printed name, Matson has hand-written, signed & dated: "For Erin with love-/ (signed) Clive Matson/ March 14, 2013." "Erin" is the late artist-poet Erin Black Matson, Clive's former wife who, along with him, was a member of the Beat Generation as it morphed into the hippie counterculture during the 1960s. The Matsons were colleagues & proteges (in lifestyle as well as literature) of Herbert Huncke, Bonnie & Ray Bremser, Diane di Prima et al. Also loosely included here is a note cursively hand-written by Clive to Erin on one side of stationary sheet with "Clive Matson" letterhead boldly printed in blue, dated September 30, 2013. The note contains references to their respective exchanged productions, along with critical gossip regarding Carol Berge (1928-2006), a Beat-&-Beyond poet who was also active in the Matsons' famous 1960s literary milieu (see our item No.s 1984, 2771, 3055, 3486). (2) Breath of Inspiration, narrow chapbook in stapled wrappers, published as issue No. 18/19 of the literary journal Presumptions: A Letter at Large, presumed first & only printing. We have seen a reference to this work having been published nearly two decades earlier (1968), therefore this is a first edition thus. With a foreword by publisher D. Patrick Miller that includes an interview he conducted with Clive, followed by short essays on the theme of inspiration alternating with poems. Two desirable Clive collectibles with most significant provenance & enriching ephemera. Both of these items are from Erin's collection, & their condition, especially that of (2), reflects their long ownership & use by Erin, who was a tried-&-true Beat-Bohemian to the end: (1) near-fine with mild rubbing, faint creasing & occasional spotting to front, back covers & stapled spine; very light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; tiny tear with miniscule loss of paper at lower spine-corner; staples in process of rusting with hardly any discernible bleeding. Interior fine with tiny bumps & mostly small, faint creases at/ near esp. upper corners of page leaves. Ephemera very fine with printing & writing on recto only; some faint surface creases; a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners. 2) fair-to-good with moderate-to-medium rubbing, light spotting & faint scratching to front, back covers & stapled spine; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; several rather large spot-stains esp. at blank back cover (Beat Coffee-rings?!); staples in process of rusting with mild exterior & esp. interior bleeding; loosening of lower staple at covers with minimal loss of paper; slight rubbing, browning to upper & lower edges of text block. Interior good with stains noted above bleeding slightly onto inner edges of some pages esp. at/ near lower staple (mostly at blank areas with hardly any effect on texts); tiny bumps at corners of some page leaves. Near Fine; Fair-to-Good. [Item #4919]

Price: $45.00 save 20% $36.00