Carver, Raymond

Ultramarine: Poems

ISBN: 0394553799
New York, NY: Random House, 1986. First Printing. Hardcover. “His wife. Forty years he painted her. / Again and again. The nude in the last painting / the same young nude as the first. His wife” (from “Bonnard’s Nudes,” p. 25). Offered here is an ocean of things poetically nutritive: “Ultramarine,” the 1986 full-length book of poems by the great American author, Raymond Carver (1938-1988). While Carver’s work is widely-respected—loved by poets yet considered approachable to that most elusive of theorized Peoples, the ‘common reader’ (which, like the Marxists’ “working class intellectual,” may be a figment of authorial imagination — a ‘phantom demographic’ despairingly wished after. Yet those found despairing in the manner described would be better served by studying Carver, whose gifts as a poet are especially striking in the two-way mirror provided by his fiction. Carver’s short story, “Cathedral,” which was first published in 1983, is taught in most American high schools. Further testaments to the scope of Carver’s impact include the fact that, unlike most authors that find their way into high school syllabi, Carver wasn’t banished there (like J.D. Salinger [1919-2010] was, for instance). At any rate, readers of Carver’s fiction that are unfamiliar with his poems, or poets who’ve yet to nibble these stanzas should take that leap and take it now. “Growth” (for poets) and “fun” (for both poets and non-poets, alike) — that’s all you risk missing out on. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), a renowned American author, poet, film critic, editor & academician here at the University of Michigan. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: “First Edition,” as stated on copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon (beginning with “2,” per contemporary custom of this publisher). Book in very fine condition with only mild shelf-wear, light rubbing to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge, otherwise pristine. Dust-jacket also in very fine condition, with only mild shelf-wear, light bumping & a few low-impact exhibits of rubbing (& microscopic bump-creasing) found variously throughout, otherwise exceptionally clean. Near Fine. [Item #7124]

Price: $50.00