Rich, Adrienne

Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations

ISBN: 0393050459
New York, NY, USA: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. "Our senses are currently whip-driven by a feverish new pace of technological change. The activities that mark us as human, though, don't begin, exist in, or end by such a calculus." (excerpt, foreword, pg. 1). Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations is a collection by award-winning American poet, essayist, educator, feminist & noted lesbian Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) published in 2001 by American publishing company W.W. Norton. It brings together some of Rich's most important prose writing from across several decades, spanning roughly the 1970s through the late 1990s. The book gathers essays, conversations & interviews that trace Rich's evolving thinking as a poet, feminist & political thinker. Arts of the Possible includes some classic pieces that had appeared in her earlier prose collections alongside newer work from the 1990s. Notable inclusions are her well-known essay "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision" (pgs. 10-29) along with later essays grappling with questions about poetry's role in public life, citizenship, capitalism & social justice. The title itself signals her stance: against the resigned "art of the possible" of conventional politics, she's arguing for the arts as a way of imagining & making possible what does not yet exist. Rich was a serious formal poet who treated political & personal life as inseparable from craft, and a public intellectual who kept rethinking her own positions in print. Her work is foundational reading in poetry, feminism and queer studies. See Item No.s 8675, 8677, 8679 et al. for more from this American literary treasure. 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 Dust Jacket: First Edition per copyright page, first printing per number sequence thereon. A most collectible intersectional book of Rich prose in its rarest contemporary form with relevant association & very distinguished provenance. Book in relatively very fine condition with mild rubbing to back cover; mild creasing/rubbing to bottom fine edge of spine; no discernible flaws to text block. Interior very fine with no discernible flaws. Dust Jacket very fine with very mild rubbing/bumping to fine edge of front, back covers & spine. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #9001]

Price: $40.00