The Collected Poems: 1931-1987, signed by Milosz.
New York: The Ecco Press, 1988. First edition. Hardcover. This is a signed, jacketed copy of the first edition of Nobel Prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz's collection spanning more than half a century of his work. The poet signed his name in blue ink at the center of the title page just below the printed title. Condition is truly fine. The binding, featuring a cloth spine with bronze lettering over paper-covered boards, is square, tight, clean, and sharp cornered with no appreciable wear. The contents are immaculate, with no soiling, spotting, or previous ownership marks. The dust jacket is crisp, clean, and complete. The unclipped dust jacket, retaining the original U.S. and Canadian prices intact on the upper front flap, is entirely complete. There are no losses or tears. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.
Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) became perhaps the Eastern Bloc's most lauded poet of the twentieth century's Cold War and one of the most respected contemporary poets in the world. Born in Lithuania, where his parents moved temporarily to escape the political upheaval in their native Poland, Milosz left Poland as an adult to escape the oppressive Communist regime and lived in the United States from 1960 until his death in 2004. "Milosz’s poems, novels, essays, and other works are written in his native Polish and translated by the author and others into English. Having lived under the two great totalitarian systems of modern history, national socialism and communism, Milosz wrote of the past in a tragic, ironic style that nonetheless affirmed the value of human life." He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980.
"The Collected Poems, 1931-1987 was published, bringing together Selected Poems, Bells in Winter, The Separate Notebooks, and Unattainable Earth into one volume. The book contains 180 poems ranging in size from two lines to 60 pages. 45 poems appear for the first time in English, of which 26 were recently translated older poems and 20 new poems. New York Times Book Review contributor Edward Hirsch found the volume 'one of the monumental splendors of poetry in our age.' Baranczak believed that it is a book that can 'finally give the English-speaking reader a fairly accurate idea of what [Milosz’s] poetry really is, both in the sense of the largeness of its thematic and stylistic range and the uniqueness of his more than half-century-long creative evolution.'
Reference: The Poetry Foundation. Item #008582
Price: $350.00