Dybek, Stuart

Streets in Their Own Ink: Poems

ISBN: 0374270953
New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Stuart Dybek to Laurence Goldstein. “In his second book of poems, Stuart Dybek finds extraordinary vitality in the same vibrant imagery that animates his celebrated works of fiction. A brilliant and deft enactment of place, these poems map the internal geographies of characters who inhabit severe and often savage city streets, finding there a tension that transfigures past and present, memory and fantasy, sin and sanctity, nostalgia and the need to for-get. Full of music and ecstasy, the poems of Streets in Their Own Ink consecrate a shadowed, alternate city of dreams and retrospection that parallels a modern city of hard realities. Throughout, one finds poetry enlivened by Dybek's signature talent for translating ‘extreme and fantastic events into a fabulous dailiness, as though the extraordinary were everywhere around us if only someone would tell us where to look’” (Geoffrey Wolff, from front flap). Offered here is Streets in their Own Ink — an impressively executed collection of poems by the noted American author, Stuart Dybek (b. 1942). Prior to the publication of Streets in their Own Ink, Dybek — an acknowledged master craftsman of contemporary short fiction, — hadn’t released a book of poems since 1979. This quarter-century absence from the form, given how startlingly good some of these poems are, seems almost a self-inflicted crime against his oeuvre. Nearer the truth, however, is the idea that these poems wouldn’t be anywhere near as good — (would not have the punchy, cinematic intensity of great short fiction) — if he spent the last twenty of those twenty-five years plodding away at developing a sense of the line as artful & clean as that of his prose. Since getting points on the board (or, for authors, ‘books on the shelves’) is what matters — I’m reminded, for example of James Baldwin being quoted as saying something like, “Don’t let yourself die until you’ve a shelf-full of books with your name on them,’ for example — Dybek’s completion of Streets should go on baubling his corpus, enchanting its readers till the last bomb drops. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), a renowned American author, poet, film critic, editor & academician here at the University of Michigan. Trade-format hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: "First Edition, 2004" per copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. This copy is additionally signed (& affectionately inscribed) by Dybek to Goldstein across two pages (blank left-facing page & the right-facing half-title, respectively). Dybek’s first signature (& accompanying inscription), in thin, black felt pen ink, reads: “For my Fellow / Lefty + dear buddy / Larry — / with great [underlined] / admiration — / Stuart.” Next, on the aforementioned half-title page is a more conventional author signature over his printed name (reading, simply “Stuart Dybek,” and in the same pen used for the preceding signature & accompanying inscription. 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 in strong fine condition with only moderate shelf-wear, light bumping, slight bump-creasing to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; were it not for the presence of a bookstore price-sticker (at bottom left-hand corner of back cover). Upon further inspection, we noticed that the initial place of purchase itself was noted on said sticker: the legendary Shaman Drum Bookshop, a vanished Ann Arbor institution founded & lead by the late, great Karl Pohrt (1947-2013), a dearly missed friend & mentor to TMB’s own President & Founder, Arthur S. Nusbaum. While the notation is without reference to buyers outside of the Ann Arbor area, or those in it of a younger generation (such as Your Devoted VP-of-Operations here at TMB, whose “time” it was “before,” as the saying goes), those interested in this listing who were in Ann Arbor during the time of its reign will look as fondly as We do upon the sticker, and see in it a time-capsule of-sorts that informs & inspires our Mission here at Third Mind Books to this day. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #7228]

Price: $35.00