Epstein, Daniel Mark

Young Men's Gold

ISBN: 0879510714
Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1978. First Edition (Review Copy). Hardcover. “Our city has never been bombed from the air— / long live our city! Sly provincial fathers / always ship the war into enemy territory, / Tripoli, Nagasaki, The Balkans, Berlin, / their battlefields, their soldiers, their porcelain cities. / But we have monuments to pain. // On my street a roofless mystery of brick / looks from a shot-through tower over the town. / Old brick, you climbed the air on the shoulders of giants / and will survive my bewilderment, holding your own / against the damnation of rain, adverse starlight / and curses of enemies weary from oceans of travel, / enemies long dead or aged to lean demons of rancor. / If ghosts had the power of death they were born with / there’d be more ruin here and less mystery…”--Daniel Mark Epstein, first few stanzas of “Pro Patria Mori,” pg. 20. Daniel Mark Epstein (b. 1948) is an American poet, dramatist, and biographer known primarily for his biographies on Nat King Cole, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Bob Dylan & Abraham Lincoln. Epstein’s most notable works include: No Vacancies In Hell (1973); Star Of Wonder (1986); The Boy In Hell (1995); Nat King Cole (1999); What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay (2001); and The Ballad of Bob Dylan (2011) just to name a few. Offered today is the 1978 collection of poetry Young Men’s Gold. This collection is Epstein’s first book after having won the prestigious Prix de Rome, and marks itself as a highlight in his poetic career. Sensuous, erotic, dripping with a dramatic lyricism, and evoking a tragic yet Homeric resonance and sensibility, Young Men’s Gold is a staggering and awe-inspiring collection. An incredible Epstein collectible in its rarest contemporary form. 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 [1] a small blue sheet from the publisher to indicate that the copy is a review copy, and requesting a “2 tear-sheets of review” to the publisher, and [2] a folded promotional sheet from the publisher with a synopsis of the book and a small biography of the author; both are in very fine condition with only slight wear to fine edges. Hardcover in unclipped first issue dust jacket as indicated by number sequence at bottom-left corner of inside front flap of dust jacket "0678". First edition (Review copy) though not explicated at copyright page, presumed first printing though similarly not explicated as such thereon. Book in very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges, otherwise pristine. Dust jacket very fine with mild smudging/scratching to front and back covers, and minor discoloration due to age-toning to same. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #9540]

Price: $60.00 save 10% $54.00