Squarings Heaney, Seamus; Vendler, Helen (Introduction); LeWitt, Sol (Artist) Andrew Hoyem and Arion Press (New),Poetry

Square, 10 7/8" by 10", 128 unnumbered pages. The type is 24-point Deepdene, handset, with smaller sizes in Monotype composition by Mackenzie & Harris for subsidiary matter. The drawings were scanned to make negatives for photopolymer plates. The paper is Pescia, a mould-made sheet from the Magnani mill in Italy. The binding, done in-house, is hand-sewn, in full gray cloth printed by letterpress with a design that is an enlarged reference to elements in the artist's drawings, and titled on the front, back, and spine. The volume is enclosed in a darker gray cloth slipcase that features the same front and spine titling as on the book. The volume is signed by both the poet and the artist. This was the first of two volumes of Heaney's poetry published by Arion Press (the second being "Stone From Delphi", 2012). Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) was lecturing at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. Through Helen Vendler we invited him to come to San Francisco to visit Arion Press and have lunch with us on South Park. On February 9, he arrived bearing a present, a copy of the manuscript of a translation he had just made of a Pushkin poem about the legendary poet Arion, who, in Ovid's "Metamorphoses", is saved from the sea by a dolphin. We printed the poem as a keepsake for Arion subscribers in 2002. Hoyem proposed to Heaney that Arion Press publish a deluxe limited edition of his forthcoming translation of "Beowulf" with facing Old English. His publishers, Faber & Faber and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, had intended to use only the translation. Heaney took the idea back to his publishers and they agreed to add the Old English text, which obviated the rationale for the limited edition. Vendler prevailed upon Heaney to allow us to instead produce a limited edition of his most important series of poems, "Squarings". Hoyem approached Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) to do four prints for the four sections of twelve poems each. Instead, the artist offered to do forty-eight drawings, one for each of the poems, as squares with underlying patterns and overlying scribbles. Please note that this copy is marked as "Display I", but is still in as-new condition. ___POSTAGE: International customers, please note that additional postage may apply as the standard does not always cover costs; please inquire for details. ___Swan's Fine Books is pleased to be a member of the ABAA, ILAB, and IOBA and we stand behind every book we sell. Please contact us with any questions you may have, we are here to help.