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79 POUND, Ezra. Cathay. London: Elkin Mathews, 1915 Pound’s “masterpiece of modernist poetry” First edition, first impression, one of 1,000 printed, this copy with the scarce publisher’s prospectus laid in. Cathay constitutes Pound’s significant adaptations from the ancient Chinese poets, including Rihaku who, Pound pointedly notes, “flourished in the eighth century of our era. The Anglo-Saxon Seafarer is of about this period. The other poems from the Chinese are earlier.” Pound’s modern English
translation of said Seafarer , one of his best such works, is also included in this collection. Literary scholars point to Pound’s Cathay , alongside the translations by his contemporary Arthur Waley, as responsible for introducing the still relatively unknown great poets of Chinese history to English-speaking audiences. Pound’s adaptations defined the wording and form of Chinese poetry for a generation of readers, leading T. S. Eliot to observe that “Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time” (quoted in Nadel, p. 1). Octavo. Original tan wrappers printed in black. Wrappers very slightly browned and rubbed, but still extremely sharp, foxed within, but a very good copy indeed. ¶ Gallup A9. Christopher Bush, ed., Cathay: A Critical Edition , 2018; Ira Nadel, Cathay: Ezra Pound’s Orient , 2015. £1,100 [151398] 80 POUND, Ezra (ed.) The Exile: no. 1–4. Dijon: Maurice Darantiere; [then] Chicago: Pascal Covici; [then] New York: Covici Friede, 1927–28 Complete set of Pound’s Modernist literary magazine First editions, all published, of Pound’s modernist literary magazine featuring work by Ezra Pound, Richard Aldington, Ernest Hemingway, W. B. Yeats, William Carlos Williams and many others. The first number includes the correction of the title of Hemingway’s contribution, “Neothomist Poem”, in Pound’s hand. The author’s name also appears incorrectly as “E. W. Hemingway” on the front wrapper. The first number of The Exile was, in reality, published in a sort of exile (albeit self-imposed), being printed by Darantiere (the printer of Ulysses ) and issued by Pound to the US and the UK from the European continent. Copies of the first number are frequently stamped “Made in France”, but this copy is not
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INEXHAUSTIBLE LIFE
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