Collins, Billy

Nine Horses: Poems with: Ephemera

ISBN: 0375503811
New York, NY: Random House, 2002. First Printing. Hardcover. “This morning as I walked along the lakeshore, / I fell in love with a wren / and later in the day with a mouse / the cat had dropped under the dining room table. / In the shadows of an autumn evening, / I fell for a seamstress / still at her machine in the tailor’s window, / and later for a bowl of broth, / steam rising like smoke from a naval battle. / This is the best kind of love, I thought, / without recompense, without gifts, / or unkind words, without suspicion, / or silence on the telephone. / The love of the chestnut, / the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel. / No lust, no slam of the door— / the love of the miniature orange tree, / the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower, / the highway that cuts across Florida” (p. 17, “Aimless Love”). Offered here is the ninth collection of poems by William James ("Billy") Collins (b. 1941), the highly acclaimed & distinguished American poet & academician who served as the Poet Laureate of the United States (2001-2003) among his many honors. Like other works by Collins, it is flecked with genius and Frostian insight. He is a poet of capability and surety; and his work will endure for generations. This lot also contains a cut-out of an essay by Collins, titled "My Grandfather's Tackle Box: the Limits of Memory-Driven Poetry" which appeared in an August 2001 Issue of Poetry Magazine. 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 near fine, with only mild-moderate shelf-wear, light bumping & some low-to-moderate impact exhibits of rubbing (& mild bump-creasing) found variously throughout, otherwise exceptionally clean. Very Fine / Near Fine. [Item #7149]

Price: $55.00