Hadley, Drummond (Glover, Albert)

Strands of Rawhide

Santa Fe, NM: Goliard, 1972. First Edition. Softcover. Inscribed, signed, dated & placed by Drummond Hadley to Albert Glover. “SINGING WINDS / Nothing…but your life you walk within / to exorcise what ghosts you are… / What the mouth won’t open itself to say / or your hand won’t write / whisper to the yellow moon… / How you lay with the women around you / shows in the way her light fingers play / caressing over your skin… / The sound of an engine turning over, / and over, and over, and over again, and again…”--Drummond Hadley, first several stanzas “Song of Forgetting.” Drummond Hadley (1938-2017) was an American poet-cowboy, conservationist and artist. A master of Americana and a poet who was deeply enmeshed, and indeed learned from the likes of Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), Charles Olson (1910-1970), & Gary Snyder (b. 1930), Hadley was a poet among poets. Hadley, like Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023), is deeply interested with the sort of pseudo-nostalgic figure of the cowboy, or border state rancher, and Hadley’s writing often paints the landscape and image of that aesthetic with a vivid clarity and straightforward language. Offered today is the 1972 collection of poetry, Strands of Rawhide. A properly Americana, cowboy-inspired collection, Strands of Rawhide is quiet, plaintive, introspective, and vividly rendered. Mired in pathos, and pleasantly McCarthy-esque in its lyricism, Strands of Rawhide is a classic Hadley work and an exceedingly rare collectible! From the collection of Albert Glover (1942-2026), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who was the foremost living authority on literary giant Charles Olson (our favorite Maximus Obscurantist), with whom we're honored to have been acquainted. Signed, inscribed, dated & placed by Hadley to Glover in thin black ink at first blank endpaper: “For Al Glover, / with thanks / for showing me how / to leg it / your friend / Drum / August 17, 1972 / Santa Fe, New Mexico.” Trade-format Softcover. First softcover edition though not explicated at copyright page, presumed first printing though similarly not explicated thereon. In relatively fine-very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges, and mild smudging/scratching to front and back covers. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #9169]

Price: $125.00