Sentences.
Whale Cloth Press, 1978. Item #3599
500 5 x 8 in. cards in blue cloth covered Chinese-style folding box. 5 5/16 (w) x 8 1/8 (l) x 5 1/2 (h) in. Composed on an IBM Selectric typewriter, using a Courier 72 (10 point) ball. Card stock is 110 lb. index white.
"I certainly don't think of myself as a Minimalist Poet, whatever that means. I'd just like the things to stand on their own, without assumption of necessary content, or even of one person's voice or authority/ authoring…I'd really like the reader to really participate in the work, such that both make an experience. Not many poems admit of really 'reading in,' really finding something which is both there, in the words, & given to the words by the state of mind & feelings, the intelligence of the reader." (Robert Grenier, letter to Burroughs Mitchell, 19 October 1976.)
"…Sentences is composed of discrete lyric poems, but it is also a work of visual art that explores fundamental phenomena of how we read, recognize, and remember poetry, either aloud, in the mind, or on the page or screen. Sentences, in other words, can be read as a complex set of interactive experiments in how poetry is mediated and experienced." (Both quotations from Paul Stephens, "Really 'Reading In'": A Media-Archival History of Robert Grenier's Sentences.)
This is no. 170 from an edition of 200 copies, from the first edition. The enclosure is in fair condition; a fragile clasp is broken and detached, the front of the box is quite sunned, and there are several instances of wear through the bookcloth on the sides. The text block is very good plus, with some toning to the half-title card and card edges. Additional photographs available upon request.
Price: $2,750.00