With this volume, published in 2008, John Ashbery became the first
living poet to have his work collected in the Library of America series.
Beginning with Some Trees in 1956, John Ashbery charted a profoundly
original and individual course that has opened up pathways for
subsequent generations of poets. At once hermetic and exuberantly
curious, meditative and unnervingly funny, dreamlike and steeped in
everyday realities, and alive to every nuance of American speech, these
are poems that constantly discover new worlds within language. This
first volume of the collected Ashbery includes the complete texts of his
first twelve books, including such groundbreaking collections as Rivers
and Mountains, Three Poems, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (which won
the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book
Critics Circle Award in 1975), and Houseboat Days. It also features an
unprecedented gathering of more than sixty previously uncollected poems
written over a period of four decades, a rare treasure trove for poetry
lovers. This volume is a landmark portrait of a modern master.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization
founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by
publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most
significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than
300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in
length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are
printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
