On the Slain Collegians
New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971.
Illustrated by Antonio Frasconi woodcuts. Limited Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine in Very Good dust jacket. Item #16017
ISBN: 0374226377
Slightest wear; Dust Jacket 1/4" tear with creasing, light edgewear, otherwise light wear. Crisp hardcover. ; Signed Limited Edition, # 946 of 1000 copies. "This unusual book offers a dramatically explicit demonstration of how the poems of this American master speak as forcefully in 1971 as they did in 1871, perhaps more so considering the oddly prophetic voice we can hear in them today. The poems and parts of poems Antonio Frasconi presents here, along with his woodcuts interpreting them, deal specifically with themes that preoccupy most Americans: war's bitterness, the wasted death of young men, "and the fissure in the hearth / growing momently more wide." The wonder is that every line - even the book's title - was written a century ago." Dedicated to the students killed while protesting the Vietnam War at Jackson State and Kent State. This powerful anti-war Limited Edition features both Melville's prescient Civil War poetry and Frasconi's striking woodcuts. ; Woodcut; 48 pages.
Price: $69.95