Waldman, Anne

Iovis: A Poem by Anne Waldman, Book II with: Ephemera

ISBN: 1566890535
Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 1997. First Edition. Softcover. Inscribed, signed & dated by Anne Waldman to Albert Glover; & with autograph postcard from Waldman to Glover. “the poet continues a long meditation on the nature of male energy & its attendant strife & delight. She admires the strong-mindedness of Sappho, as evinced by a cutting, penetrating poetry, & her ability to embody the unnerving negatively capable slogan of “both both,” whatever her actual sexuality, with great aplomb. And if she did in fact run a school, all the better to compare his own writer’s current situation in which she instructs poetics students to create long complex collages, made up out of the fragments of a dream, fragments of the utterances of ancients, investigative poetics, translation, and other sundries of the art. What is the comparison? Are we doing this, dear students, in the service of Aphrodite? Adonis? Beatrice? Mistress Language? Or to make sense of our fragmented world in which the mind is forever spinning & buzzing through various dark then brilliant language realms? And concurrently in the business of being antennae to the horrific reports from various fronts: Bosnia, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome battlefield, issues of insurrection & of gun control. Dante enters first, as frequently he must, to claim attention, and as reminder, through the auspices of his useful ars poetica, La Vita Nuova, that we are “making” writing out of the world, out of the imagination, in a new speech, a “sweet new” (rude) tongue...”--Anne Waldman, “I,” pg. II. Anne Waldman (b. 1945), American Beat poetess, champion of the avante-garde, professor, editor, and all around cultural/political activist is a massively influential figure in the tradition of American letters. Among her many achievements, Waldman is primarily known for: having written more than 60 books, including Fast Speaking Woman (2001), published by City Lights Books, Bard, Kinetic (Coffee House Press, 2022) and Vow to Poetry (Coffee House Press, 2001), as well as selected poetry editions, including Helping the Dreamer (Coffee House Press, 1989), Kill or Cure (Penguin Books, 1994), and In the Room of Never Grieve (Coffee House Press, 2008); co-founding the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, alongside Allen Ginsberg & Diane di Prima. Offered today is the 1997 long-poem Iovis: Book II. The follow up to the 1993 Iovis: All is Full of Jove [see out item no. 2354], Iovis: Book II is a meditation on a matriarchal response to patriarchal violence, the place of women in the Beat Generation, as well as current (at the time) geo-politcal movements and events. From back cover: “In this second tome, Iovis Book II, Anne Waldman pursues the duty she charged herself with at the close of her previous volume—“to blunt the knife.” Male war making and aggression, old stubborn patriarchal social forms, and the damages of industrial and military expansionism raise the poet into a rage of spiritual compassion. All require that she conjure powerful mythic assistance. She summons female eidolons for her work reaching out to Sappho, H.D., the woman troubadour known as the Countess Dia, the Gaelic Hag of Beare, and the Spider Woman of Native America. There are dirges for dead relatives and companions, and songs of healing as she watches over dear friends taken ill…” A titanic work by one of the best poets of the last century & an increasingly rare Waldman collectible! From the collection of Albert Glover (1942-2026), the esteemed American poet, editor, bibliographer, publisher & academician who was the foremost remaining authority on Charles Olson (1910-1970). Glover was a student of & anointed by the Maximus Master himself at SUNY Buffalo during the 1960s, & had ever since served outstandingly to bear the Olsonian Torch. We have found and retained, between front cover and first blank leaf, a hand-written note from Waldman to Glover in thin black ink at recto of a post card from Italy of Martin Luther. Signed, inscribed & dated by the author in thin black ink at title page: “For Al Glover / most warm / Anne Waldman / June 1998.” Trade-format softcover original: First Edition, though not explicated as such on copyright page; First Printing, with no reference to other printings, thereon. In very fine condition with minimal wear to fine edges, and slight smudging/scratching at front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #9398]

Price: $100.00 save 10% $90.00