Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: PROSPECTUS. 8vo. Folded Page, Very Good+. With Promotional Photograph (on card stock) of Everson and notice to book dealers.
Seller: Wittenborn Art Books, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: PROSPECTUS. 8vo. Folded Page, Very Good+.
Seller: Wittenborn Art Books, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Everson, William and Leigh Wiener. The High Embrace. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles, 1986.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Description: (12) pp., 11 x 14 inches. 12 unbound leaves of Arches heavyweight paper, printed letterpress in Monotype Janson by Patrick Reagh, and five gelatin silver photographic prints mounted on archival rag boards, all housed in a buckram-covered folding box with printed cover and spine labels, in a clear acrylic slipcase. The text contains the title poem, a note on the poem by Everson, and a commentary on the photographs by Wiener. The five photographs have been printed by the photographer; each is signed and numbered on the mount, below the image. Published in an edition of one hundred numbered copies, signed on the colophon by the poet, photographer, and printer, ninety of which were for sale. Of the ten hors commerce copies reserved for the participants, this copy (number 4) is one of those belonging to Mel Smith, the dedicatee ("who brought together poet and photographer") and patron of the edition. Laid in is a copy of the prospectus, a single sheet folded to make four pages and also printed by Patrick Reagh, with a reproduction of a photograph of Everson (presumably also by Wiener, but an image not included in the final production), and photocopies of a 1994 Everson obituary and a 2003 review of an Everson reader, both from the L. A. Times.Aside from a few tiny spots of foxing in the frontmatter, the contents are in fine condition, in a very good box with very slight sunning to the cloth and light soiling to the spine label. The acrylic slipcases were provided by Mel Smith for his copies, and were not issued with the rest of the edition; this slipcase bears scattered scuffs and scratches, with a small piece missing from the top edge. In the words of the prospectus: This publishing project brings together the art of a poet, a photographer and a printer. . . . William Everson's poem is here issued separately for the first time . . . Everson compares the giant redwood trees on his Santa Cruz mountain property that meet in embrace high overhead to a Gothic cathedral . . . Leigh Wiener has made a specialty of photographing people . . . the five photographs chosen for this work show Everson at the Lime Kiln Press and in and around his home at Kingfisher Flat. The collaboration between the poet and photographer resulted in photographs that have pleased the poet. As Everson states it, "Most photographs must necessarily be content to mirror the poet in his extraneous acts. ëThe High Embrace' offers graphic images illustrative of the living poem in the vision of the man who wrote it."A very scarce hors commerce copy of an uncommon and ambitious production.
Seller: Passages Bookshop, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Everson, William; Wiener, Leigh A. (photographer). The High Embrace. Dawson's Book Shop, 1986.
Price: US$713.30 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Clamshell box shows minor wear and fading. Prints are near pristine.
Seller: Books From California, Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.
Everson, William. The high embrace. Dawson's Book Shop, 1986.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: New
Description: Folio - between 12" - 15" Tall. Limited edition, signed by all contributors. Introspective set of portrait photographs by Leigh A. Wiener offer unique view of the noted California poet William Everson. Includes poems and texts by Everson. One of only 100 numbered portfolio sets (of which 90 were for sale), printed by Patrick Reagh; signed by Everson, Wiener and Reagh on limitation page. Suite of five original mounted photos individually signed and numbered by Wiener on mount. Loose as issued in publisher's green cloth folding case, with printed paper spine and front cover labels. [11] leaves plus mounted photographs. 5 b/w photos / plates.
Seller: Arundel Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, limited issue. First separate appearance of Everson's poem. Number 55 of 100 numbered copies SIGNED BY EVERSON, WIENER, & REAGH on colophon leaf (the first 10 copies were not for sale). Illustrated with five mounted black-and-white photographs of Everson - EACH ONE SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY WIENER. Eleven loose leaves of text in total, including the introduction by Everson on 2 leaves, the poem itself on 3 leaves, dedication leaf (".to Mel Smith who brought together poet & photographer"), and leaf with Wiener's descriptions of each of the photos. Housed together in publisher's folio green cloth-covered folding case with white, printed labels on front and spine. ALSO INCLUDES a copy of the original prospectus and TLS FROM MEL SMITH, a friend and admirer of Everson who reportedly funded the book. The letter, to the collector, Allen K. Mears, describes the genesis of the book (" . Leigh Wiener and I spent three days with Everson in Santa Cruz and at his home in Davenport in 1980.") and, referring to an academic program he attended, quotes from a letter in his collection ("In my collection of letters there is one by JOHN STEINBECK in which he writes, 'After the drives for survival and procreation, man's strongest instinct is to bore. He is a success when people will sit still for it.'") Altogether fine.
Seller: Quill & Brush, member ABAA, Middletown, MD, U.S.A.