CLAMPITT, Amy Multitudes, Multitudes New York, Washington Street Press, 1973
8vo. Sage green stapled paper wraps; black title lettering to front cover; pp. [7] 2-69, [1]; slight corner crease to bottom of back cover; minor nick to foot of spine; two very faint ink corrections in author's hand on p. 25; otherwise near fine.
First Edition of the author's scarce first book, signed by the author to front free endpaper.
When Amy Clampitt published this debut volume of poems, Multitudes, Multitudes, in 1974 she was as yet an unknown voice but this would prove to be a crucial marker of her evolution into one of the most highly regarded American poets. She was 63 upon the publication of Kingfisher in 1983, and she became an established name, compared to the likes of Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop. It was at her own expense that she published this scarce first book, a poetry chapbook, and a work which caught the eye of Howard Moss, the poetry editor of The New Yorker who from then on began to lend Clampitt her deserving platform.
#2120283