Twelve Moons.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979. First edition. Hardcover. This is a jacketed first edition, first printing of acclaimed American poet Mary Oliver’s fourth published collection of poems. This is not only a significant early collection, but also aesthetically appealing, the binding a charcoal cloth with silver spine print and Oliver’s silver facsimile signature on the front cover, the contents bound with ochre endpapers, the book wrapped in a white dust jacket with silver-gray and black print, a photographic portrait of the artist on the rear face.
Condition is fine in a very good dust jacket. The binding is immaculate – square, clean, and tight with sharp corners and no appreciable wear. The contents are pristine with no previous ownership marks, no spotting, no toning, and an unread feel. The dust jacket is neatly price-clipped at the upper front flap, leaving only most of the "$" sign and the foot of the "7" (of "$7.95") intact, but otherwise complete. There is wear and tiny closed tears along the top edge and light overall soiling, with the flap folds and spine modestly toned. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.
In Twelve Moons, “Mary Oliver continues to explore the alluring, yet well-nigh inaccessible kingdoms of nature and human relationships, and man’s profound, persistent desire for a joyous union with them. These vibrant, magical poems pulse with an aching awareness of nature’s unaffected beauty” and “present a startlingly rich physical landscape”. Oliver long resided in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and the Cape Cod landscape has a definitive, influential presence in her work.
Mary Oliver (1935-2019) published more than two dozen collections of poetry, spanning 1963-2017, as well as prose works. She ranks among America’s most significant and best-selling poets, “best known for her awe-filled, often hopeful, reflections on and observations of nature.”
Among her many awards are the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Christopher Award, the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award, an American Academy of Arts & Letters Award, a Lannan Literary Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Prize and Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Item #007929
Price: $850.00