Wonderful Inscription from a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet
Inner Voices: Selected Poems, 1963–2003
Publication: New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. First Edition.
Notes: A late-career best-of collection of poems by a Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning poet and translator, inscribed to his friend Robert Gottlieb, an acclaimed editor at Knopf and the New Yorker. Gottlieb and Howard were classmates at Columbia University.
In his memoir, Avid Reader, Gottlieb writes about his friendship with Howard. "Real life was at Columbia, not in the classrooms but in the surround, as I started meeting people I could talk to. The crucial encounter was with Dick Howard (now Richard, but never to me). He was a year older and a year ahead, but that never really registered... From the start, then, Dick and I were bound together by books. But also by other things—mostly, I suppose by shared tastes and interests (and snobberies)... We shared an aristocracy of taste that was acute, impassioned, and snobbish—perfect glue for a young friendship... Dick went on to become America's leading translator from the French (as well as a superb critic, teacher, and Pulitzer Prize–winning poet.)"
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. This copy is inscribed, "Dearest Bo, herewith a lot of outer ones as well, but in the jangle I trust you can pick out the strains (sic) of old, present and continuing love. Richard 2004. NYC." A nice association between two important New York literary figures.
Provenance: The private library of Robert Gottlieb (1931—2023), sold in part in 2024; supporting paperwork will be provided with the book.
Item No: #364151
Price: $350