Browse Similar Items
THE ALMS OF ALCIPPE.
(New York: Targ Editions, 1982). 272 x 158 mm. (10 3/4 x 6 1/4"). 45, [1] pp., [1] leaf.Translated by Edith R. Farrell. First Edition in English. ONE OF 250 COPIES.
Publisher's blue quarter cloth over gray paper boards, front cover with author's facsimile signature in blind, spine lettered in silk. In original (slightly torn and creased) glassine dust jacket. Photograph of the author tipped in facing title page. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on the limitation page. Spine slightly sunned, otherwise as new.
This attractive private press production of poems by Marguerite Yourcenar--issued here in English for the first time--comes from the library of another poet born in our author's home country. The first woman ever elected to the prestigious Académie Française, Belgian-French poet and novelist Yourcenar (1903-87) wrote learned works that often drew on Classical history and motifs in order to muse on love, sexuality, and destiny. "The Alms of Alcippe" is largely a translation of Yourcenar's 1956 "Les Charites d'Alcippe" (although a few later poems have been added). C. Frederick Farrell Jr. writes in the introduction to the present work that the poems "represent a crystallization of the most important subjects and themes that have preoccupied [the author] throughout her career." The present production is the work of Targ Editions, which was founded in 1979 by commercial publisher and editor William Targ (1907-99) as a result of his love for beautiful typography and book production. Printed at the Grenfell Press on heavy Frankfurt paper in Centaur type set by Michael Bixler, "Alms of Alcippe" exemplifies this. Our copy is from the library of Laure-Anne Bosselaar (b. 1943) and her husband Kurt Brown (1944-2013). Bosselaar is a Belgian-American poet, translator, and editor who has published numerous works of poetry in multiple languages, including five collections of her own works. She has received various prizes and recognitions (Pushcart, Isabella Gardner, Breadloaf) and was named Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara in 2019. Sometimes publishing jointly with Bosselaar, Brown was also a prolific poet and editor of anthologies, as well as the founder and first director of the Aspen Writer's Conference, playing a pivotal role in shaping its early vision and establishing Aspen as a literary center. The fragile glassine wrapper that is present here is usually long gone. (ST20338-087)
Price: $400.00