Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
William Carlos Williams. Paterson (Book One). New Directions, 1946.
Price: US$80.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Book one of Paterson. First edition. Clean, bright, and unmarked with light shelfwear to boards.
Seller: Open Boat Booksellers, Amherst, MA, U.S.A.
William Carlos Williams. Paterson (Book One). New Directions, 1946.
Price: US$90.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardcover in jacket. First edition (limited to 1000 copies, printed at Van Vechten Press). Book is sound and clean with light shelfwear; some tanning to endpapers. Jacket is present but split into two pieces at spine; suitable for restoration or repair.
Seller: Raritan River Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$95.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Edition. Original cream colored cloth, tiny stain at top of front cover. Ownership signature on front free end paper. A very nice copy.
Seller: sonalsorises, los angeles, CA, U.S.A.
WILLIAMS, William Carlos. Paterson (Book One). A New Directions Book, (New York), 1946.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, Spine browned, tanning to extremities of boards, endpapers darkened from acidic binder's glue, else a near very good copy lacking the dust jacket. Limited to 1000 copies.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Williams, William Carlos. Paterson, Book One. New Directions, 1946, 1946.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing This is, of course, the first part of the long poem in four parts. One of William Carlos Williams' many master strokes. Has become scarce. Near fine beige boards with gilt titles
Seller: Longhouse, Publishers & Booksellers, Brattleboro, VT, U.S.A.
WILLIAMS, William Carlos.. Paterson (Book One).. New Directions, [New York], 1946.
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo, publisher's cloth in dust jacket. First edition. Endsheets tanned; slight bumping at extremities of spine; tight and sound in a dust jacket with some tanning, tiny chips and light use. A New Directions Book.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$495.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 2 volumes. Book One AND Book Two of Paterson. Both bound in burgundy cloth (hardcover) with gold lettering on the spine, stamped bottom to top in the British fashion. Bindings are good and clean and in very good condition. Clean white endpapers. Book One was published in 1946. This is one of 1,000 copies printed. Book Two was published in 1948, also in a small edition of only 1,000 copies. Both printed on laid paper. Text blocks clean and unmarked, corners square. Overall both volume are in very good condition. The only curious thing about these are the bindings. Both volumes were originally issued in cream colored bindings, not these dark red ones. It's also noteworthy that the margins are wide and the pages are unusually crisp and clean for a book of this age. Williams worked on Paterson for decades. These are first editions of the first two books. Please email with questions or to request photos. Also note that if there is a picture beside this listing, it is a STOCK PHOTO, placed there by ABE, not a photo of these books.
Seller: Riverby Books, Fredericksburg, VA, U.S.A.
Williams, William Carlos. PATERSON BOOK I. New Directions, 1946.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 8vo, about fine with very slight bumping of the tips in an almost V.G D.J. which is moderately toned esp. at the spine which has very small loss at the bottom, cheap post war paper.vvbrm2/3
Seller: NUDEL BOOKS, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Williams, William Carlos. PATERSON. Book I and Book II.. New Directions, New York, 1946.
Price: US$575.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Book One: 45 un-numbered pages, [i] blank, followed by [i] page. Previous owner's name neatly on the front endpaper. About a half dozen pages have small spots of minor discoloration. Four pages have ink lines in the margins. Book Two published in 1948: 50 un-numbered pages, followed by [i] blank, followed by [v] pages. Original hardcover cloth bindings are slightly browned/sunned on the spine, with minor soiling; protected in archival mylar. Both are stated to be limited to 1000 copies printed. First editions.
Seller: Kurt Gippert Bookseller (ABAA), Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Williams, William Carlos. Paterson [Books 1-5 Complete]. New Directions, 1946.
Price: US$700.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Complete 5 volume set, book five is the only one with an included dust jacket. Dust jacket is worn around the edges with small torn bits at some corners, but otherwise intact. Books 1-4 each have a marking on first blank page, but otherwise all texts remain well-bound, unmarked and undamaged throughout. First editions.
Seller: FITZ BOOKS AND WAFFLES, Buffalo, NY, U.S.A.
Williams, William Carlos. PATERSON (5 volumes). New Directions, New York, 1946.
Price: US$1700.00 + shipping
Description: 1946-1958. First printings of the first editions of all five books in the long poem to which Williams devoted so much of his later life. Each of Books I-IV were editions limited to 1,000 copies; Book V was limited to 3,000 copies. Seldom found as a complete set! The books are clean and tight, with light dusting of the top edges and some foxing along the top edge of the cloth only on Book Five. Two volumes have a previous owner's name written very neatly on a front endpaper, and one has a bookplate on the front endpaper. Pages are lightly toned (especially Book One) and more so on the endpapers. Pages edges are toned. The dust jackets for Books 1-4 are clean and attractive with some light tanning, mostly along the spines; jacket for Book 3 has a 5-inch unrestored split along the rear flap fold. The jacket for Book Five presents well but has moderate foxing, a couple of tiny chips, and one 1 1/4" closed tear at the bottom of the rear panel. All dust jackets are now protected in archival polyester sleeves. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Tennyson Williams Books and Fine Art, Williamsburg, VA, U.S.A.
Williams, William Carlos. Paterson: Books I-V. New Directions, New York, 1946.
Price: US$2400.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: FIRST EDITIONS of all five books of William Carlos Williams's epic masterpiece, one of the great triumphs of twentieth-century American poetry. Each first edition had a very limited print run: Books I-IV, one of only 1000 copies, Book V, one of 3000 copies. "This is the first part of a long poem in four parts--that man in himself is a city, beginning, seeking, achieving and concluding his life in ways which the various aspects of a city may embody--if imaginatively conceived--any city, all the details of which may be made to voice his most intimate convictions. Part One introduces the elemental character of the place. The Second Part will comprise the modern replicas. Three will seek a language to make them vocal, and Four, the river below the falls, will be reminiscent of episodes--all that any one man may achieve in a lifetime" (Williams, introducing Paterson, which will ultimately become five, rather than four books). New York: New Directions, 1946-1958. Tall octavo, original cloth, original dust jackets. A FINE SET with only the slightest wear. Rare in this condition.
Seller: Manhattan Rare Book Company, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
WILLIAMS, William Carlos.. Paterson.. New York: A New Directions Book, 1946-48-49-51-58, 1946.
Price: US$3202.16 + shipping
Description: First editions, first printings, of Williams's epic poem, Book 2 a review copy from the library of Ruth and Mark Schorer, with their bookplate on the front pastedown and a typed letter signed by the publisher Hubert Creekmore loosely inserted. This is an excellent association, sent to a significant friend and colleague of the author with a request for his comments. Mark Schorer (1908-1977) was a writer and critic, who earned his MA at Harvard and went on to chair the University of California's English Department from 1960 to 1965. He was a witness during the 1957 obscenity trial for Allen Ginsberg's Howl, testifying in defence of the poem. He was one of Williams's "teaching pals" (quoted in Mariani, p. 546), and in his autobiography, Williams recalls attending a two-week English conference in 1946 in Salt Lake City, Utah, where "Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Caroline Gordon, Mark Schorer, all swam with us in a nearby pool evenings, and at Alta we rode in the ski-lift (specially connected for us) over the snowless ground now blossoming profusely on the slopes between the tall firs. thrilling to be lifted that way above the mountainside, feet dangling, high over the earth to the shoulder of the slope". In his letter, Creekmore acknowledges this friendship, despite misspelling Schorer as "Shorer", a fairly common error: "knowing you are a friend of Williams, I wonder if you would read this new section of his longest and most mature poem and send us, as soon as possible, some comments on it". Paterson was influenced by Ulysses and embarked upon with the intent "to objectify the man himself as we know him and love him and hate him" (quoted in Lloyd, p. 190). The epic began life as an 85-line poem of the same name, which won the Dial award in 1926. Williams struggled with "the impossible poem Paterson", admitting in his autobiography that it "called for a poetry such as I did not know". However, his belief in the project sustained him: "A cold east wind, today, that seems to blow from the other side of the world - at the same time to be blowing all poetry out of life. A man wonders why he bothers to continue to write. And yet it is precisely then that to write is most imperative for us. That, if I can do it, will be the end of Paterson, Book IV. The ocean of savage lusts in which the wounded shark gnashes at his own tail is not our home. It is the seed that floats to shore, one word, one tiny, even microscopic word, is that which can alone save us" (Letter to José Garcia Villa, 1950, quoted in Wallace). Wallace A24a; A25a; A30a; A34a; A44a. Margaret Glynne Lloyd, William Carlos Williams's Patterson, A Critical Reappraisal, 1980; Paul Mariani, William Carlos Williams, A New World Naked, 1981; William Carlos Williams, The Autobiography, 2017. 5 volumes, octavo. Original buff cloth, title on front covers in gilt, thin rectangle stamped across front covers, spines, and rear covers in black (Book 1), green (Book 2), blue (Book 3), red (Book 4), and orange (Book 5), fore and lower edges untrimmed. With dust jackets. Ticket of the Holiday Bookshop, New York, on rear pastedown of Book 5. Spine and lower rear cover of Book 1 slightly foxed, a few marks to front cover, one corner bumped, a little offsetting to pastedowns; spine of Book 5 a little cocked; tiny bump to top edge of front cover of Book 4. A near-fine set, extremities occasionally toned, in lightly toned jackets, a little soiled, spine ends and corners occasionally chipped and nicked, a few short closed tears to panels of final three books, tiny damp stain to rear panel of Book 3, a very sharp and attractive set.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
WILLIAMS, William Carlos. Paterson. New Directions, Norfolk, CT, 1946.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Description: 5 volumes, 8vo. A complete set of Williams' epic poem, each volume in original printed dust jacket. First editions, volume one boldly signed by Williams in an early hand. "I started to make trips to the area. I walked around the streets; I went on Sundays in summer when the people were using the park, and I listened to their conversation as much as I could. I saw whatever they did, and made it part of the poem." - Williams. Paterson is Williams' great long-form documentary work. It not only redefined subject matter, but prosody - Williams worked on it for years before finalizing the first volume, continually refining his use of the line outside of conventional meter. Its scale and its scope, and the fact that it was published in individual volumes over a long period of time (and not collected until 1963) complicated its reception, and its mosaic structure challenged readers perhaps more than Williams expected. Paterson was Cyril Connolly's final selection in his choice of the 100 key books of The Modern Movement: "The long poem has many moods and includes quotations from letters by Pound and Ginsberg, large Seurat-like canvases of the Park on Sunday, intimate Bonnard-like interiors, uproarious comedy . his poem is written with a deep aversion to all forms of pretentiousness, rhetoric or prepared effects; it runs eddying along, broken by old letters, bits of local history and limpid love lyrics." The volumes were printed in small editions: volume one comprised 1063 copies (952 bound at publication date and 111 bound in April, 1948); volume two of 1009 copies (similarly handled); volume 3 of 999 copies; volume 4 of 995 copies; and volume 5 ambitiously appeared in 3000 copies (1500 on its 17 September 1958 publication date and 1480 bound that December). Wallace A24, 25, 30, 34, 44. Some toning and occasional soiling to the jackets (and a few pale stains), a few small chips, overall a very good plus set, vol. 2 with unobtrusive ownership signature
Seller: Riverrun Books & Manuscripts, ABAA, Ardsley, NY, U.S.A.
WILLIAMS, William Carlos. PATERSON (Books 1-5). New Directions (1946-58), New York, 1946.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Description: Five volumes, all First Editions in dustwrappers. The first four books limited to 1000 copies, the fifth to 3000. Williams's masterpiece, SIGNED by the poet in an early hand on the front free endpaper of the first volume and quite scarce thus. CONNOLLY 100, the one hundredth key book in Connolly's listing: "The long poem has many moods and includes quotations from letters by Pound and Ginsberg, large Seurat-like canvases of the Park on Sunday, intimate Bonnard-like interiors, uproarious comedy . his poem is written with a deep aversion to all forms of pretentiousness, rhetoric or prepared effects; it runs eddying along, broken by old letters, bits of local history and limpid love lyrics." Short tear to the front panel of the dustwrapper of the second volume, occasional internal tape reinforcement. Near Fine in Near Fine dustwrappers with only light wear and soiling
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
William Carlos Williams. Paterson. New Directions, 1946.
Price: US$7685.18 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Though now he is celebrated most for his brevity, Paterson is Williams magnum opus, his answer to the magnum opuses of his peers (Eliots Waste Land and Pounds Cantos spring to mind) and his grandest attempt to find a distinctly American poetic voice and pose for the 20th century. The result is this series of five books, published between 1946 and 1958 by New Directions, which take as their subject the town of Paterson, New Jersey, and the resemblance between the mind of modern man and the city, all told in a powerful vernacular. This is the complete set of first editions, all in Fine condition or close to it, with none of the soiling almost always seen on these textured dust jackets. Scarce, the first four volumes having been limited to 1000 copies and the fifth to 3000.
Seller: CASSIUS&Co., London, United Kingdom
WILLIAMS, WILLIAM CARLOS. [ROETHKE, THEODORE]. Paterson: Books I-V. New Directions, New York, 1946.
Price: US$17500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: FIRST EDITIONS, AN OUTSTANDING ASSOCIATION COPY: Theodore Roethke's copies of Books III and V, with Book III inscribed in Roethke's hand "Ted Roethke's book, gift of W.C. Williams" and Book V inscribed by Williams "Ted from Bill". With first editions of the remaining volumes. William Carlos Williams was one of the most influential figures in Theodore Roethke's creative life. "At a time when Theodore Roethke was finding his poetic voice, he called William Carlos Williams 'my toughest mentor.'" From 1940-1948, as Roethke was developing his poetry, he submitted his latest work to Williams to critique. Williams repeatedly responded candidly and forcefully, issuing "a series of challenges to Roethke, and these challenges changed the direction and scope of Roethke's art" (Robert Kusch, "My Toughest Mentor": Theodore Roethke and William Carlos Williams). Roethke's own volumes of Paterson - Williams's masterpiece - must have held extraordinary significance for him and unite two of the towering figures in American poetry. Each first edition of Paterson had a very limited print run: Books I-IV, one of only 1000 copies, Book V, one of 3000 copies. New York: New Directions, 1946-1958. Tall octavo, original cloth, original dust jackets. A fine set with only the most trivial wear. Original cloth, original dust jacket
Seller: Manhattan Rare Book Company, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.