i: Six Nonlectures
Price: $600.00
Hard Cover. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953. Limited First Edition. Near Fine / Dust Jacket Included.
First limited edition. One of 350 copies numbered and signed by Cummings, this being number 208. Publisher's two-toned white and black cloth, lettered in black to spine; in its original black dust jacket, lettered in white, price-clipped as usual. Near fine book, with a touch of wear to extremities, and light toning to spine; good dust jacket, with light toning to spine, variously worn and creased with a large area of loss to top edge of front panel. From the library of Pulitzer Prize winning author Kenneth Silverman, with "Sharon & Kenneth Silverman" bookplate to front pastedown. Overall, a tight and square copy with notable provenance. Six Nonlectures presents the text of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures given by E. E. Cummings in 1952-53, in which the author begins by warning his audience that he is indeed, not a lecturer. Throughout a series of six lectures, "i & my parents," "i & their son," "i & selfdiscovery," "i & you & is," "i & now & him," and "i & am & santa claus," Cummings speaks on a personal note about his own work and what it means to be a writer, asserting that the art form is meant to express individuality and that everyone, despite any claims otherwise, is inherently egocentric. Chiefly a biographer, Professor Kenneth Silverman co-directed the American Civilization program at NYU and won the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes for his work The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (1984). Other notable works of his include biographies of Edgar Allan Poe and Samuel F. B. Morse. A magician himself, he also profiled the life of Harry Houdini. Item #EEC043
