X [10] War Elegies

Waldport, OR: Untide Press, 1943. First edition. First edition. (This edition has mimeographed contents and silkscreened covers, and ten poems rather than the later eleven. One of 100 copies according to Everson's biographer Lee Bartlett.) [20] pp. Bound in publisher's wraps glued over stapled contents, silkscreened in yellow and black. Very Good with two hole punches near head, "Education Dept." written in ink on front wrap, toning to wraps and contents with age. Scarce in the true first edition.A significant work of Pacific Northwestern poetry, the first publication of Untide Press in WWII conscientious objector logging camp Camp Angel in coastal Oregon. (truncated) The innovative production of this volume, hiding the staples that bind the text underneath glued wraps, would influence Lawrence Ferlinghetti's famous book design for City Lights. Everson himself would be later be associated with Ferlinghetti and the Beats. This copy belonged to the late William Matchett, a professor at University of Washington, poet, and, due to his being a Quaker, a one-time conscientious objector who was subjected to medical experiments at the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Inventory #: 140944779)