OMEROS

New York: Garrar Straus Giroux, 1990. First printing. Fine in fine jacket.. Signed first edition of Walcott's "epic of the dispossessed" (Hamner) - published just two years before he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. OMEROS is a seven-part epic of Walcott's "West Indian vision of New World experience" (Hamner, 1) that builds on classical models - especially Homer (as referenced in the poem title). The yearning for home, a central theme of THE ILIAD, THE ODYSSEY, and THE AENEID is here transformed into a post-colonial reckoning with what home means for people of the West Indies. In 1992 Walcott was awarded the Nobel for "a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment," the very traits on display in OMEROS. 8.5'' x 5.25''. Original grey-blue cloth, blind-stamped front board, gilt-lettered spine. In original price-clipped color pictorial jacket. [8], 326 pages. Signed by Walcott on title page. Jacket with trace rubbing. Tight.