The Grand Piano: an Experiment in Collective Autobiography. San Francisco, 1975-1980 [Inscribed Association Copies]

MANDEL, Tom; Bob Perelman; Barrett Watten; Steve Benson; Carla Harryman; Ron Silliman; Kit Robinson; Lyn Hejinian; Rae Armantrout, and Ted Pearson

Published by Mode A [through 2010], Detroit, 2006

About this Item

First Edition of this experiment in collective autobiography, complete in ten volumes. Crown 8vo (173 x 104mm): 79,[1]; 90,[6]; 127,[1]; 159,[1]; 143,[1]; 159,[1]; 207,[1]; 207,[1]; 223,[1]; 271,[1]pp. Publisher's white stiff card covers, original wrappers with French flaps, printed in various colors and priced $12.95. Part 1 signed to half-title page by Ron Silliman, one of ten poets who collaborated on the project: "For Richard / Back in the / Day," with printout of e-mail correspondence between Silliman and the recipient, California poet Richard Krech, and Bagazine postcard addressed to Krech in Albany, California. Part 2 signed to Krech by Lyn Hejinian on title page. Very Fine (pristine and unread), in custom cloth-covered slip case by Fitterer. The Grand Piano (the title derives from a legendary San Francisco coffeehouse where the project's authors programmed, coordinated, and participated in a reading and performance series from 1976 to 1979) was written over a decade of close collaboration among ten poets from what became known as the Language School. Each volume features essays by all ten writers, often responding to prompts and problems arising from one another's essays in the series. "Centered on the rise of Language poetry in San Francisco in the second half of the 1970s, the project explores a wide range of issues in poetics and the lives of poets â " then and now. . . . The Grand Piano's authors worked together via a listserv whose archive contains tens of thousands of e-mails that document the depth and intensity of collective effort this project entailed." (thegrandpiano online) Silliman's poetry newsletter, Tottel's (1970-81), contributed to the development of ideas in language poetry. According to Wikipedia: "Gertrude Stein, particularly in her writing after Tender Buttons, and Louis Zukofsky, in his book-length poem A, are the modernist poets who most influenced the Language school. In the postwar period, John Cage, Jackson Mac Low, and poets of the New York School (John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Ted Berrigan) and Black Mountain School (Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, and Robert Duncan) are most recognizable as precursors to the Language poets. . . . The language poets also drew on the philosophical works of Ludwig Wittgenstein, especially the concepts of language-games, meaning as use, and family resemblance among different uses, as the solution to the Problem of universals. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Seller Inventory # BB2085

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Grand Piano: an Experiment in Collective Autobiography. San Francisco, 1975-1980 [Inscribed Association Copies]
• Publisher: Mode A [through 2010], Detroit
• Publication Date: 2006
• Binding: Card Covers
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • MODERN FIRSTS