American Smooth: Poems

Dove, Rita

ISBN 10: 0393059871 / ISBN 13: 9780393059878

Edité par W W Norton & Co Inc, New York, 2004

A propos de cet article

SIGNED with short inscription by Dove on the title page. First printing. Clean and tightly bound with unmarked interior and text. The dust jacket remains unclipped ($22.95) and shows no signs of wear other than light rubbing at the tips. NOT ex-lib. A clean, tight copy in jacket. 143pp.

N° de réf. du vendeur 008487

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: American Smooth: Poems
• Éditeur: W W Norton & Co Inc, New York
• Date de parution: 2004
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0393059871
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780393059878
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: 1st Edition
• État de l'article: Fine
• État de la jaquette: Near Fine

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Occasion to celebrate: a new collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning former poet laureateher first in five years. Rita Dove's magnificent poems pay homage to our kaleidoscopic cultural heritagefrom the glorious shimmer of an operatic soprano to Bessie Smith's mournful wail, from paradise lost to angel-food cake, from hotshots at the local shooting range to the Negro jazz band in World War I whose music conquered Europe before the Allied advance. Like the ballroom-dancing couple of the title poem, smiling and making the difficult seem effortless, Dove explores the shifting surfaces between perception and intimation. Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Oscar, makes her way through crowds to receive the award. A girl in Harlem studies the flirtations of the adult world, so that someday she too can "pop right out." Fred Astaire once proclaimed, "I just put my feet in the air and move them around." Like Astaire, Dove, speaking intimately to us as we lean in, is such a master that we never notice the labor of creation.

À propos de l?auteur

Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U. S. Poet Laureate, is the only poet honored with both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. Her recent works include Playlist for the Apocalypse, Sonata Mulattica, and the National Book Award-shortlisted Collected Poems: 1974-2004. In 2021 she was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2023 she received the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She lives in Charlottesville, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia.