The publication of James Merrill's Collected Poems is a landmark in the history of modern American literature. His First Poems --its sophistication and virtuosity were recognized at once--appeared half a century ago. Over the next five decades, Merrill's range broadened and his voice took on its characteristic richness. In book after book, his urbanity and wit, his intriguing images and paradoxes, shone with a rare brilliance. As he once told an interviewer, he "looked for English in its billiard-table sense--words that ... Read More
The publication of James Merrill's Collected Poems is a landmark in the history of modern American literature. His First Poems --its sophistication and virtuosity were recognized at once--appeared half a century ago. Over the next five decades, Merrill's range broadened and his voice took on its characteristic richness. In book after book, his urbanity and wit, his intriguing images and paradoxes, shone with a rare brilliance. As he once told an interviewer, he "looked for English in its billiard-table sense--words that have been set spinning against their own gravity." But beneath their surface glamour, his poems were driven by an audacious imagination that continually sought to deepen and refine our perspectives on experience. Among other roles, he was one of the supreme love poets of the twentieth century. In delicate lyric or complex narrative, this book abounds with what he once called his "chronicles of love and loss." Like Wallace Stevens and W. H. Auden before him, Merrill sought to quicken the pulse of a poem in surprising and compelling ways--ways, indeed, that changed how we came to see our own lives. Years ago, the critic Helen Vendler spoke for others when she wrote of Merrill, "The time eventually comes, in a good poet's career, when readers actively wait for his books: to know that someone out there is writing down your century, your generation, your language, your life . . . He has become one of our indispensable poets." This book brings together a remarkable body of work in an authoritative edition. From Merrill's privately printed book, The Black Swan , published in 1946, to his posthumous collection, A Scattering of Salts , which appeared in 1995, all of the poems he published are included, except for juvenalia and his epic, The Changing Light at Sandover . In addition, twenty-one of his translations (from Apollinaire, Montale, and Cavafy, among others) and forty-four of his previously uncollected poems (including those written in the last year of his life) are gathered here for the first time. Collected Poems in the first volume in a series that will present all of James Merrill's work--his novels and plays, and his collected prose. Together, these volumes will testify to a monumental career that distinguished American literature in the late twentieth century and will continue to inspire readers and writers for years to come. From the Hardcover edition. Read Less
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $12.99, very good condition, Sold by Gate City Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Greensboro, NC, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Knopf.
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $12.99, good condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Knopf.
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $16.18, good condition, Sold by BayStateBooks rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Smithfield, RI, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Knopf.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
The book is in good condition with all pages and cover intact including the dust jacket if originally issued. The spine may show light wear. Pages may contain some notes or highlighting and there might be a From the library of label. Boxed set packaging shrink wrap or included media like CDs may be missing.
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $18.03, good condition, Sold by Patty Klein, Hilltop Book Shop rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Marshfield, WI, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Knopf.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Size: 6x2x9; Ex-library with usual markings (date due slip, stickers, stamps, etc..). Dust jacket protected by plastic. Some edge wear to covers and pages. Pages in good reading shape. Binding is secure. Our feedback says it all! Feel confident when you order from Hilltop Book Shop.
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $32.89, fair condition, Sold by Coas Books, Inc. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Las Cruces, NM, UNITED STATES, published 2002 by Knopf.
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $36.96, very good condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Knopf Publishing Group.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good. Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp. NOT AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Add this copy of Collected Poems (First Edition) to cart. $42.00, like new condition, Sold by Dan Pope Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from WEST Hartford, CT, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Knopf, New York.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. New York: Knopf, 2001. First edition, second printing. Hardcover. Full black cloth with gilt and red spine lettering, purple endpapers, and silk ribbon page marker. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Publisher's original price intact on jacket flap ($40.00). Comes with archival-quality mylar dust jacket protector. Octavo, 885 pages, with index. Edited by J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser. The definitive posthumous anthology of James Merrill s poetry, encompassing his life s work from early verse through his late masterworks, including "The Changing Light at Sandover." Merrill (1926-1995), one of the most celebrated American poets of the twentieth century, won the Pulitzer Prize, two National Book Awards, and the Bollingen Prize, among many other honors.
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $42.00, very good condition, Sold by Jeff Hirsch Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Wadsworth, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
First edition and first printing. Hardcover. 885 pages. A posthumously released comprehensive anthology of poems from this Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning author. A clean and tight very near fine copy in black cloth boards and in a very near fine dust jacket with special preview edition sticker to the rear flap.
Add this copy of Collected Poems to cart. $57.00, like new condition, Sold by Argosy Book Store rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from New York, NY, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Knopf.
