Mornings Like This: Found Poems

Harpercollins, 1995. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. The inscription reads: "For Bob, the love and light of my life, Annie." The relationship between Annie Dillard and her husband, Robert D. Richardson, is a remarkable and well-known story. Both were married, to different people, when Dillard sent Richardson a fan letter out of the blue, prompted by a book he wrote, Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind. Dillard wrote her Master's thesis at Hollins College on Walden, and Henry and the transcendentalists of course have majorly influenced her work, starting with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Richardson is one of our foremost literary biographers, having written also about Emerson and William James (the latter book earned him the Bancroft Prize). As Dillard described it, she and Richardson had "two lunches and three hand shakes" and then both got divorces so they could get married, in 1988. The next book she wrote, The Writing Life, is fittingly dedicated "For Bob," and they remain one of America's foremost literary and transcendental couples. Richardson has even gone on to write the biography of Dillard, a short one. As for condition: the book is very good because of some light foxing to upper and outer edges of the text block and some extremely minor sunning or soiling to the upper and lower edges of the boards; the jacket is very good because of some moderate sunning to the spine. Dillard left a second signature (her public, more-perfunctory style) above her name on the title page. All in all, the book presents extremely well, and its association is the ultimate knot. A copy inscribed to a life partner is always, de facto, a dedication copy and when it comes to having "mornings like this," Richardson would know better than anyone. Please inquire for photos.