Collected Earlier Poems by Anthony Hecht, Signed Custom Harcourt Binding

Binding Details:  Custom leather binding by the Harcourt Bindery, Charlestown, Massachusetts bound in three-quarter morocco leather over complimentary cloth boards that has raised bands to the spine, gilt titling, and gitled center motifs and ruling. There are marbled endpapers, hand-sewn silk headbands, with gold gilted top page ends. The Harcourt Bindery label appears on the bottom of the last free endpaper.

Book Details:  This is a stated first edition of Hecht’s critically acclaimed “Collected Earlier Poems” published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1990 that contains the complete texts of The Hard Hours, Millions of Strange Shadows, and The Venetian Vespers. In a New York Times article on Hecht, David Yezzi wrote: “It was Hecht's gift to see into the darker recesses of our complex lives and conjure to his command the exact words to describe what he found there. Hecht remained skeptical about whether pain and contemplation can ultimately redeem us, yet his ravishing poems extend hope to his readers that they can.”

Measures approximately 9.25” x 5.75” with 272 pages.

Condition Report:  The binding is in FINE condition. Internally, the book is very clean with no signs of previous ownership. Overall, this is a beautiful binding that houses the poetry of one of most respected poets of the twentieth century.

A photograph of the binding appears in the photo section of the listing.