Inscribed first edition, in beautiful condition, of one the Modernist poet's greatest works, published by one of the movement's most important presses.
Near fine.
Price: $3,500.00
"He had asked her for poems, but probably he wouldn't like them. Not abstract enough. Not clarid nor concise enough. Perhaps she could rework them."
The first book in H.D.'s semi-autobiographical Magna Graeca cycle, PALIMPSEST in many ways finds Doolittle turning away from the fragmentation of Imagism in the wake of WWI and toward a more cohesive narrative — if still experimental — style. She would later write: "[PALIMPSEST] is not intended as a work of art [...] It is a means to an end. I want to clear up an old tangle. [...] You must remember that writing poetry requires a clarity, a clairvoyance almost. I have been too weak to dare to be clairvoyant. I have tried instead to be merely sensible." Interestingly, several contemporary clippings are loosely laid in, including one with the headline: "H.D.'s 'Palimpsest' [...] Is Decipherable Only by a Few Clairvoyant Readers." Robert McAlmon's Contact was one of the original loci of the burgeoning Modernist movement. Many of his publications are notoriously fragile; this copy is exceptionally well preserved.
Read more: Boughn, H.D.: A Bibliography 1905-1990, A8.a.i.
First printing. Paris: Contact Editions"a.i", 1926. 7.5'' x 5.5''. Original beige typographic wrappers. "Printed at Dijon (France) by Maurice Darantiere." One of 700 copies. [viii], 340 pages. Inscribed in year of publication by H.D. on the front endpaper: "H.D. / London / 1926." Leaves largely unopened. Touches of shelfwear, faint soil here and there. Bookplate to verso of front wrapper. Else clean and sound.
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