Forché, Carolyn

The Angel of History with: Ephemera

ISBN: 0060170786
New York, NY, USA: Harper Collins, 1994. First Edition. Hardcover. “There are times when the child seems delicate, as if he had not yet crossed into the world. / When French was the secret music of the street, the cafe, the train, my own / receded and became intimacy and sleep. / In the world it was the language of propaganda, the agreed-upon lie, and it bound me to / itself, demanding of my life an explanation. / When my son was born I became mortal. // Our days at Cape Enrage, a bleached shack of rented rooms and white air. April. / At the low tide acres of light, boats abandoned by water. / While sleeping, the child vanishes from his life. // Years later, on the boat from Beirut, or before the boat, an hour before, helicopters lifting / a white veil of sea. / A woman broken into many women…”--Carolyn Forché, “The Angel of History,” pg. 3. Carolyn Forché (b. 1950), is a Detroit-born poet, editor, professor and translator known for works like: Gathering the Tribes (1976); The Country Between Us (1981); Blue Hour (2003); and The Horse on Our Balcony (2010), just to name a few. Offered today is the 1994 collection of poetry, The Angel of History. Forché’s third work of poetry, The Angel of History is a meditation of memory, specifically how memory survives the unimaginable. The poems reflect the effects of such experience: the lines, and often the images within them, are fragmented & discordant. War, genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, and the advent of nuclear weapons, The Angel of History---borrowing from Walter Benjamin’s (1892-1940), concept Angelus Novus—examines the apocalyptic tragedies of the 20th century and attempts to make sense of them while also preserving them as historical subjects through poetry. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), poet, editor, and professor in the University of Michigan Department of English Language and Literature. We have found and retained between front cover, and first blank leaf, a folded xeroxed/printed review of Forché’s poetry from The Nation dated November, 20th, 1982. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket. First edition as stated at copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. Book in Very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges. Dust jacket very fine with minor wear to fine edges, and slight smudging/scratching to front and back covers. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #9528]

Price: $40.00 save 10% $36.00