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Harmonium

Harmonium

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Harmonium

by Stevens, Wallace

  • Used
  • Signed
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This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
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About This Item

NY: Knopf, 1931. Second edition, third binding. This edition contains fourteen new poems, while dropping three from the original edition. The complete printing of the second edition consisted of 1,500 copies, which were bound over a period of thirteen years. This copy is inscribed by Stevens on a preliminary blank. The inscription reads: "The basis of poetry is response" and is dated "Sept. 14, 1943." If one could condense Stevens's particular approach to literary creation into a single sentence, this could certainly be it. For Stevens, the pursuit of the real in poetry -- his Supreme Fiction -- is rooted in its immediacy: "Part of the res itself and not about it. / The poet speaks the poem as it is, / Not as it was." Poetry, in Stevens's view, is language used in response to life as it is lived, making this an extraordinary inscription. Stevens signed very infrequently, and inscriptions appear even less often. As a basis for comparison, the Neville copy of this edition, which sold in 2004, was signed ten days after Pearl Harbor and contained a single sentence inscription about war. This is a fine, bright copy in cloth-backed pale blue boards and with the dust wrapper, which is toned along the spine, has a nearly invisible split along the front fold, and has a chip in the upper left corner of the front panel. (Edelstein A.1.b).

Reviews

On Dec 11 2015, a reader said:
Review of Harmonium by Wallace Stevens

5 Stars

Reviewed by Sean Stuart

Date: 12/10/15

I recently purchased “Harmonium”, a collection of poetry by the poet Wallace Stevens. It was his first book and was published in 1923, with 81 poems in the original version all varying in length. I really enjoyed reading it and found a lot of the poems to be about nature. I thought the incorporation of great imagery in the peaces of poetry to be quite enjoyable. I believe Stevens did a great job of letting some of these poems almost come to life in my head filled with images of nature and thoughts of mystery all this while still making a poem that some people could find accessible. If you can’t understand it, or you feel that its inaccessible then at least it sounds like he’s saying it well.

An example of the great imagination and imagery in “Harmonium” is in the poem “Banal Soljourn”. To me this poem creates the scene of the sun rising over a house in the woods and the trees casting a shadow on the ground as it rises, “The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.” (line 2) and as the sun rises it evaporates the moister off the plants so they can open up to the sky, “Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.” (line 4). Another poem that continues with his beautiful them of nature is “Fabliau of Florida”. This poem painted a scene in my mind of a moon lit beach on a cloudy night. It has a feeling of serenity to the poem that might calm who ever is reading it. As I said before Stevens goes into detail with his imagery, in stanza 3 of “Fabliau of Florida” he writes about the top of the ocean and waves “Foam” and the horizon of the night sky meeting together to form one dark canvas.

Foam and cloud are one.

Sultry moon-monsters

Are dissolving

Part of the mystery sense can be found in the poem “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock”. The poem leaves the mind to wonder what is happening and for some may let the imagination take over and come to a conclusion on its own. In stanzas 1-6 of “Disillusionment of Ten” he writes:

The houses are haunted

By white night-gowns.

None are green,

Or purple with green rings,

Or green with yellow rings,

Or yellow with blue rings.

After a second read I found the mystery in it. I think he’s referencing a plane house with plane boring lives “white night-gowns” and because of these plane boring lives they won’t “dream of baboons and periwinkles”. I think Stevens wrote all this with the idea that people who lead boring lives and sleep in plane pajamas will not have exciting dreams, all that being said and the poem still does a great job of filling your mind with imagery.

Stevens does a wonderful job of keeping a reader’s mind on it’s toes. The book “Harmonium” bringing mystery and imagination to life in the reader’s head with many writings of nature. I would say it’s a great buy for any one who enjoys poetry.

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Details

Bookseller
Bromer Booksellers US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
22241
Title
Harmonium
Author
Stevens, Wallace
Book Condition
Used
Quantity Available
1
Publisher
Knopf
Place of Publication
NY
Date Published
1931
Bookseller catalogs
Literature;

Terms of Sale

Bromer Booksellers

All books are guaranteed as described and may be returned, with prior notice, within ten days. All bills are payable within thirty days from the date of the invoice. Shipping and insurance are additional. Overseas shipments will be sent by air mail unless otherwise instructed.

About the Seller

Bromer Booksellers

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2008
Boston, Massachusetts

About Bromer Booksellers

Bromer Booksellers specializes in rare and beautiful books. Owned and operated by Anne Bromer, who has been in the business of fine books for over fifty years, our shop carries a range of important private press books, designer bookbindings, illustrated books, children's books, and miniature books.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Inscribed
When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
New
A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...

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