Various (Share, Don (Editor); Brooks, Gwendolyne; Browne, Mahogany L.; Jackson, Angela; O'Rourke, Megan; Paschen, Elise; Phillips, Carl et al.)

Poetry Vol. CCX No. 3 (June 2017)

Chicago, IL: Poetry Foundation, 2017. First Printing. Softcover. “Gwendolyn Brooks began sending poems to this magazine when she was in high school. ‘I see myself at fourteen,’ she later wrote, ‘when I first began to pound at the gates of the magazine Poetry! It was a fourteen-year siege.’ The gates at last opened and two poems of hers appeared in our November 1944 issue, beginning a long relationship. Of the poems she went on to publish in our pages, doubtless the most famous is ‘We Real Cool,’ a section of ‘The Bean Eaters’ sequence.” (from Introduction, by Don Share) This number of the venerable “Grande Dame” of American poetry journals – originally edited & published by the legendary poet-publisher-patron Harriet Monroe (1860-1936) – is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000). Brooks was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for her Annie Allen, which depicts life in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, her lifelong home. She was named poet laureate of Illinois in 1968, delivered the 1994 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and served as Consultant in Poetry for the Library of Congress. Patricia Smith, the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry winner, kicks things off with “A Street in Lawndale,” a short poem that references Brooks’ “A Street in Bronzeville.” Mahogany L. Browne contributes “Marigold” and “Coco(nut).” Other poetry pieces include “Ghost” and “Fountain” by Elise Paschen. Commentary pieces on Brooks’ work are provided by Meghan O’Rourke & Carl Phillips, among others. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), poet, editor, and professor in the University of Michigan Department of English Language and Literature. Trade-format softcover original. First Edition, First-&-only Printing though neither stated as such at copyright page. In Fine condition with light rubbing and scratching to front, back covers & spine; a small crease to top corner of back cover. Interior Fine with some light creasing to top corners of final few page leaves. Fine. [Item #8516]

Price: $30.00