Waffling Through the Afternoon

Okay, I decided to waffle and sit on which books I'm actually going to purchase...but with a few exceptions.

I snatched up Elio Schneeman's early book. It's signed, dedicated "to Lita..." That's almost certainly Lita Hornick, the "Kulchur Queen."

I love all my books from Kulchur press. Those were wonderful years.

I also knew I really wanted Elaine Equi's New and Selected, so I put that through.

I would have loved to have done the same with Laura Moriarty's Selected but it's very pricey right now and most copies seem to be shipping from overseas, which makes postage onerous as well. Maybe she published that in the U.K.? Or maybe it's just a fluke.

The third book I couldn't resist was de Chirico's monograph on Courbet put out by the Valori Plastici group back in 1926.

The price was incredibly low, and even though it ships from England the bookseller was not exploitive at all on shipping (which is the exception for overseas booksellers on ABE).

The Valori Plastici artists were a great little constellation.

Many of them (Carra, to cite a notable example--see paintings above) created art which really resembled the painting being which would be done in the 1990s and later, after postmodernism had shot its wad and things began going rather coolly, queerly metaphysical again (I really think there is something to the pendulum theory of art and even ethics, whether you take Nietzsche's model or even the funny version put forth by Anthony Burgess in The Wanting Seed.) Or maybe they always coexist and battle it out: Picasso vs. Duchamp, for example. Those are pretty much poles.

Anyway, I spent less than forty bucks for everything, so don't have to wear a hair shirt or gnash my teeth.

But I probably will anyway.

That only leaves about fifty books in my "Wanted" file lol.

I was considering some copies of The Dial from the 1920s, when Marianne Moore was at the helm (instead of Scofield Thayer) but ultimately decided that the magazine would contain poetry I already knew anyway, so was a pure luxury and indulgence.

Interesting how the other great avanty mag of the period, The Little Magazine, costs more and is invariably in much worse condition. Perhaps the choice of materials was poorer, or there was more lignin in the paper they used? Or (putting an "up" spin on it) maybe its devotees and readers loved it more, and used it harder. Yeah, right!

I also hit the "save for later" button on some great early twentieth century French poetry mags.

Oh well.

In my experience, these books rarely move. There's nary a flutter on the tote board.

Just come back later, and it's yours.

The one exception to that role is Goreyana.

Blink twice and another Goreyolater has beaten you to the button punch.

Sigh.