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The Redbridge Book Co.
A Fictitious Bookstore in Delaware County
Membership(s): ABA
Selected Poems
$1,500.00
Jarrell, Randall
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1955. First edition.
Unique copy, inscribed on the front pastedown and featuring a holograph of ‘The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner’, commonly viewed as the poet’s most widely known and frequently anthologized work.
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
First published in 1945, the poem drew directly from Jarrell’s own involvement with military aircraft and airmen during WW2. “While the people and events of World War II are commonly found in Jarrell’s poetry, this poem is unique for its lack of wit. Indeed, the grim tone of this poem places it firmly in the Modernist movement of literature.”
Jarrell reportedly “admitted to fearing most of his reputation as a poet is tied up in [this poem]. But, there are certainly worse outcomes for a poet’s career in this poem which has been referred to as the best war poem ever written.”
Bottom corners a little scuffed, else nearly fine in good dust wrapper with unprofessional repairs to interior.
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Offered for Sale by: The Redbridge Book Co.