To the Waters and the Wild

Berkeley: Thorp Springs Press, 1975. INSCRIBED to Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Eberhart and his wife: “Dick and Betty on the happy occasion of your visit to Alaska with love and fond wishes from all the Nickersons.” VG+ in pictorial wraps (scuffing and rubbing). Inserted is a one-page publisher’s promotional broadside, with green decorative tree design accompanied by the poem “Night Realm of the Pine-Wife” (“Where do the seals sleep / This night of frozen fog? / I have followed out / As far as sound can reach”). Near Fine, folded twice. Promotional ephemera from the Berkeley, CA Thorp Springs Press to advertise Nickerson’s new book To the Waters and the Wild: Poems of Alaska (“ready in 1975”). On the verso of the broadside is a letter SIGNED by Nickerson to Eberhart, dated July 8, 1976 from Juneau, Alaska (Nickerson was Poet Laureate of Alaska). The letter notes Nickerson’s regret in not getting to hear him speak, although she says, “It certainly was grand to see you again.” She writes, “Philip Booth kindly answered my letter, and I am most appreciative of his words. Do tell him, when you see him, of my continuing admiration for his work.” Booth and Eberhart both died in Hanover, NH (home to Dartmouth College) in 2007 and 2005, respectively. A wonderful piece that interestingly ties these three celebrated poets together in the 1970s.