THE DONKEY'S EARS (First edition - first impression - PBO)

E. S. Politovsky (Translated by Douglas Dunn)

ISBN 10: 0571204260 / ISBN 13: 9780571204267

Published by Faber & Faber, 3 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AU, 2000

About this Item

First impression of the first collected edition, with the full number-string sequence: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 on the printer's page. Published as a paperback original (PBO). Published as a paperback original (PBO). ***Near fine in matt-finish card covers. The covers are clean and unmarked. No creases or tears. No reading lean to the binding. No reading creases to the spine. Spine tight. Spine colour unfaded. Internally also near fine, with no inscriptions. Pages clean - paper stock lightly tanned. No creases or tears. ***198mm x 126mm. 176 pages. ***'Douglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE (born 23 October 1942) is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He is Professor of English and Director of St Andrew's Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrew's University.' (Wiki) ***'E. S. Politovsky was the Flag engineer on the flagship Kniaz Suvorov, which led a Russian fleet around the world to its destruction at the battle of Tsushima in May 1905. Sometimes known as The Trafalgar of the East, it was the biggest naval gun-battle in history. In The Donkey's Ears, Douglas Dunn presents us with Politovsky's secret written verse-letters to his wife, Sophie. It touches on many places, from the famous Dogger Bank Incident, when the Russian Imperial Navy fired on the 'Gamecock' Hull trawler fleet, to Vigo Bay, Tangiers, Dakar, Gabon, German South-West Africa, Madagascar, and French Indo-China. Through the squalor, frustrations and loneliness of life aboard a battleship, Douglas Dunn gives us a portrait of a man caught in the destinies of progress, history, and geography. From the vantage-point of a new millennium, it is a poem whose imaginative sweep stretches both forwards and backwards in time.' (Quote taken from the back cover) ***First impression of the true first edition, published as a PBO, in near fine condition. Uncommon. . ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 3735x

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE DONKEY'S EARS (First edition - first impression - PBO)
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, 3 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AU
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571204260
• ISBN 13: 9780571204267
• Binding: Original Wraps
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket, as Issued
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • First Editions
  • Collectable Paperbacks

About this title

Synopsis

A wonderfully sustained narrative poem, full of the resonances and repercussions attendant on the end of an era, The Donkey's Ears depicts life aboard a Russian flagship just before the battle of Tsushima, 1905. It purports to be written by E.S. Politovsky, a ship's engineer addressing his wife in letters back home. Known as 'The Trafalgar of the East', Tsushima (which, translated from the Japanese, means 'The Donkey's Ears' - a description of the twin peaks of the islands) was the biggest naval gun-battle in history. The action of the poem takes place before the battle. A vividly realized claustrophobia prevails. Life below and on deck is brilliantly detailed as is the sense of incipient doom; one man's voice (domestic, particular, yearning for wife and home comforts) pitched against the inexorable onslaught of events.

About the Author

Douglas Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire in 1942, and was Professor in the School of English at the University of St Andrews. As well as over ten collections of poetry - including Elegies (1985), which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and New Selected Poems 1964-2000 (2003) - he has written several radio and television plays and edited various anthologies, including Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (2006). He was awarded an OBE in 2003 and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2013., Douglas Dunn was born in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, in 1942 and lived there until he married at the age of twenty-two. After working as a librarian in Scotland and Akron, Ohio, he studied English at Hull University, graduating in 1969. He then worked for eighteen months in the university library after which, in 1971, he became a freelance writer. In 1991 he was appointed Professor in the School of English at the University of St Andrews. As well as ten collections of poetry, including Elegies (1985), The Year's Afternoon, The Donkey's Ears (both 2000), and New Selected Poems 1964-2000 (2003), Douglas Dunn has written several radio and television plays, including Ploughman's Share and Scotsman by Moonlight. He has also edited various anthologies, including Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (2006). Douglas Dunn has won a Somerset Maugham Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and has twice been awarded prizes by the Scottish Arts Council. In 1981 he was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for St Kilda's Parliament. In January 1986 he was overall winner of the 1985 Whitbread Book of the Year Award for his collection Elegies.