Ali, Agha Shahid

Rooms Are Never Finished: Poems

ISBN: 0393041492
New York, NY, USA: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002. First Edition, First Printing. "Rooms Are Never Finished focuses our attention on the major hot spot of our world with a personal emotion that brings it close and makes it real for Americans. These poems are simply amazing." (Forrest Gander, dust jacket review). Kashmiri-American poet and educator Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001) presents his penultimate book of poetry, the National Book Award finalist, Rooms Are Never Finished. Born during upheaval in the Kashmiri region of India, Ali moved to America during the bicentennial of 1976 to pursue his Ph. D. in English from Pennsylvania State University. An acolyte of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) and the New-Formalism movement of the time, Ali first gained widespread recognition with his fourth book of poetry, A Walk Through the Yellow Pages in 1987. Rooms Are Never Finished yokes political and personal tragedy, with a long poem as its focal point. Ali used a line from Emily Dickinson as the title for Amherst to Kashmir (pgs. 23-51), a poem that explores his grief at his mother’s death and his own continued sense of exile from his home and culture. Ali continually stitches his work from cultural, political and personal events, with Amherst to Kashmir being a cultural inquiry as well as a personal lament, threading the story of the martyrdom of the Shia hero Hussain throughout his elegy, keeping the history and hope of transcendental violence always before us. Released one month before his untimely death. See also item #7956 for more from this multicultural poet. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), poet, editor, and professor in the University of Michigan Department of English Language and Literature. Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $22 price printed on front flap, "11-01" at rear flap): first edition as stated at copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. An enjoyable, essential & collectible Ali book of poetry in its rarest contemporary form, with distinguished provenance. Book in relatively very fine condition with minor rubbing to front, back cover & spine, tiny bumps at edges and corners of same; minor age-toning to text block. Interior relatively very fine with no discernable flaws, virtually mint. Dust jacket relatively very fine with slight rubbing mostly to outer fine edges and corners (Silver National Book Award Finalist sticker still firmly affixed). Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #7954]

Price: $30.00