About this title: Written between 1925 and 1960, and tapping into a huge variety of references, from economics and politics to classical literature and Chinese philosophy, the CANTOS--considered to be his best work--represent Pound's attempt to write a modern epic. The 117 poems that comprise the CANTOS are a passionate defense of the dignity and worth of common labor, and a denunciation of the greed and materialism that, according to Pound, undermine the quality of life. They also clarify his conviction that the past is always a part of the present, and that the concerns of humanity are universal and ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First Edition/Second Printing
Binding: Silver-Stamped Cloth Hardcover
Publisher: A Publication Of New Directions Books, New York NY
Date Published: 1948
Description: Very Good +++ Not Offered With A Dustjacket. 536 Numbered Pages. 5 3/4" x 8 3/4" Of gift quality, the pristine textblock of this venerable 1948 hardcover 536-page first edition/second printing is very clean, tight, square, carries no highlighting, underlining or marginalia, and shows only modest age-toning and an owner's name to the front pastedown endpaper. The black clothbound silver-stamped backstrip and coverboards are clean, still mostly bright and show only modest finish rubbing, and ... read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. Light wear to bottom of boards, DJ in protective mylar wrap, tight and square. The complete cantos, illustrated with chinese characters. read more
Binding: Hardback.
Publisher: [New York] New Directions [1948]
Date Published: 1948
Description: Remains of dust jacket. Very good condition. 149, 56, 46, 167, 118 p. port. 22 cm. Moderate wear to top of spine and top edge of rear board. Jacket browned, missing part of spine, rear flap separated. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Directions, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780811203500ISBN:0811203506
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Pound worked on The Cantos for more than 50 years; this edition collects all the segments published from 1930 to 1969, Cantos 1 through 120 (textured cloth with black lettering, slight edgewear, previous owner's name at top of front endpaper; orange dust jacket with black lettering, slight edgewear including small tear at top of spine; otherwise a bright, clean, sturdy volume) read more
Edition: Second Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Directions, New York
Date Published: 1948
Description: Good in Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Price NOT clipped, DJ nicely in archival wraps with minor tears to the edges. DJ is lightly age toned, wear to the boards with edges exposed. Binding is tight with pages otherwise clean & fresh. read more
Edition: First edition, second printing [first published in 1975].
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Date Published: 1976
Description: A fine copy in dust jacket; jacket has nick at base of spine, else fine. (POUND, Ezra). THE CANTOS OF EZRA POUND. The Lyric Mode by Eugene Paul Nassar. Octavo, cloth, pp. xi, 164. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Faber
Date Published: 1960
Description: Near fine and bright in like price-clipped dustjacket with crisp bright text throughout. Light age tone to back cover. The seminal work. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: hardcover
Publisher: New Directions, New York
Date Published: c1934-1948
Description: A. Genthe portrait frontis. fair, no dj, silver-stamped black cloth, spine worn & torn. Various, "LXXXIV" (84) Cantos, each section paginated separately. Bkstore label verso back cover. Internally clean, solid. read more
Edition: 2nd printing
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: A New Directions Book, NY
Date Published: 1948
Description: Good in Good Dust Jacket; In a (-) Dust Jacket. DJ rubbed with edge chips and darkened spine. 8vo; Contains all the Cantos completed to date (1948) A Draft of XXX Cantos, Eleven New Cantos, The Fifth Decade of Cantos, Cantos LII-LXXI also The Pisan Cantos. read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Hardback.
Publisher: A New Directions Book
Date Published: 1948
Description: Near very good dust jacket with sunning of spine, light edgewear and some soiling. Very good condition. 118p. Previous owner's name on inside of front board, on ffep, third page, title page and next page. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Directions, New York
Date Published: 1989
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. Hardcover. Later printing. NF/NF. 8vo; brown cloth; 818 pp.; light shelfwear; price-clipped, else a clean, crisp, near fine copy in like jacket. Protected in a Brodart cover. read more
Binding: Black cloth
Publisher: New Directions Books, New York
Date Published: 1948
Description: Octavo. Fifth printing. 542 pages. Illustrated with frontispiece. Residue from small (removed) label on front cover, underlining and marginal notations on 339 pages, else a good copy. From the library of retired Professor of English (and creative writing) Dale H. Edmonds (Tulane University) with his signature, underlining and marginal notes. read more
Edition: First collected edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: A New Directions Book, (New York)
Date Published: 1948
Description: A near fine copy with binding a bit dull. POUND, Ezra. THE CANTOS OF EZRA POUND. [Gallup A61a, 2897 copies printed]. Octavo, black cloth, [circa 540 pages]. read more
Edition: 1st edition
Binding: hb
Publisher: Faber & Faber, London
Date Published: 1954
Description: Bound in original black cloth and in original dust jacket. 8vo, pp. 576. Errata slip tipped-in at end. Front endpaper removed. Stamp of St. Chad's Girls School on title page-no other markings. Boards bumped at corners. Bottom edge near spine a bit sunned. Spine lettering bright. A good plus copy. The dust jacket is worn at the folds and partially torn. Tape remains to base of spine. Light general soiling. Overall, the jacket is in fair to good condition. read more
Edition: First edition, 8th Printing
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation, New York
Date Published: 1972 / 1981
ISBN-13:9780811203500ISBN:0811203506
Description: AS NEW in FINE DJ. 8vo (5-3/4 x 8-1/4), 803 pp. Clothbound book is unmarked, apparently unread, and AS NEW in FINE printed DJ, protected in mylar cover. (DJ is AS NEW but with one 1/64" dot on front cover. ) (h) Cover is brick-brown woven cloth with vertical ripple on spine, as is characteristic of this edition. The Magnum Opus of one of the greatest--if not THE greatest--20th Century American poet. 50 years in the creation. The man to whom James Joyce sent the first copy of Finnegans Wake, ... read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Cloth
Publisher: New Directions, New York
Date Published: 1970
Description: Very Good in Good jacket. DJ has moderate soil/handling/edgewear. Coffee ring on front panel. DJ spine has 1/2" closed tear top edge. Front DJ flap price-clipped. Light handling soil to endpapers. First printing in one volume. read more
"Difficult, difficult read. It is also a work of genius. Demented genius at that. Imagine Pound living in an steel cage, writing under the glare of floodlights and open hostility. Certainly not a nice man, but also not an animal. There is no Emily Dickinson to be found here..."
"A great and wonderful book, though a bit hard to read after the "Pisan Cantos". It's one of those either you'll like it or you won't. But if you do read it, be prepared for a lot of challenging parts."
"Ezra Pound's masterpiece still rings with grandeur almost a century after the early episodes were written. A high-modernist poet like his friend T.S. Elliot, Pound has a brighter outlook and a higher opinion of humanity, so his work is less dark and depressing. Pound believed poetry should be complicated and dense, requiring serious intellectual effort to understand. Though the allusions contained are so complex, abstract and disconnected as to render the Cantos practically meaningless to the casual reader, his language and imagery are as magnificent as any in the American Cannon. Highly recommended."
"Probably one of the most maddening, frustrating books of poetry ever written. To read this is to swim in a million allusions, hardly ever grounded. Plus, Pound never finished it. But, page by page, his mastery of language is most apparent."
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