Signed William Everson American Bard Walt Whitman

Description

A fascinating and somewhat overlooked collaboration between two major figures in American poetry. Here William Everson—poet, printer, founder of the Lime Kiln Press, and one-time Dominican lay brother—recasts Walt Whitman’s famous 1855 Leaves of Grass preface into verse, revealing the poetic cadence hidden within Whitman’s original prose. The result is neither criticism nor adaptation so much as a rediscovery of Whitman’s voice.

The volume was first issued in a limited Lime Kiln Press edition before this Viking trade edition appeared in 1982 with a foreword by James D. Hart. Everson’s woodcut-inspired design and typography make the book especially appealing to collectors of fine press, Beat-related, and West Coast literary material. Signed copies are increasingly difficult to locate, particularly in such pleasing condition.

A handsome signed association between one of America’s greatest poets and one of the twentieth century’s most distinctive literary craftsmen.