ODYSSEUS ELYTIS Selected Poems
Viking, 1981. First Edition. Hardcover with Dust Jacket. First American Edition, first printing. SIGNED by the Odysseus Elytis on the half title and inscribed in Greek to his friend, photographer and publisher, Stathis Orphanos. 114pp. 8vo, beige paper over boards backed in black cloth with silver gilt spine lettering, machine-deckled fore edge. NEAR FINE in NEAR FINE DJ. Some trivial toning to extremities, owner's initials to FFEP and some very faint offsetting to the endsheets, otherwise exceedingly clean and sharp with crisp, fresh pages. DJ price clipped, crisp and bright otherwise. Orphanos, a renowned photographer, was born of Greek parents and maintained a residence on the Greek islans of Samos. A native of Crete and leader of the Greek resistance to the Nazis, Elytis the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1979. In their presentation, the academy stated that his poetry “depicts with sensual strength and intellectual clearsightedness, modern man’s struggle for freedom and creativeness ... [In] its combination of fresh, sensuous flexibility and strictly disciplined implacability in the face of all compulsion, Elytis’ poetry gives shape to its distinctiveness, which is not only very personal but also represents the traditions of the Greek people.” Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Translated by Edmund Keeley, George Savidis, Philip Sherrard, John Stathatos, and Nanos Valaoritis. NEAR FINE / NEAR FINE. Item #508300
Price: $750.00