Beschreibung:

POUND, Ezra. Exultations . London: Elkin Mathews, 1909. 8 o. 9-page publisher's advertisement at end. Original crimson boards, gilt-lettered on front cover and spine (spine and rear cover lightly sunned). Provenance : EZRA POUND (signature on front free endpaper, annotations). THE AUTHOR'S OWN REVISED COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, of which 1000 sets of sheets were printed, but no more than 500 copies issued. Here in the presumed first state of the binding, reading "Exultations , of , Ezra Pound" on the front cover. Mathews issued the remainder as Personae and Exultations in 1913. Exultations was published just sixth months after Personae , on 25 October 1909. Largely comprised of poems reprinted from literary journals, Exultations exhibited a "slipping into an 1890s langour" which Eliot would call "rather fancy old-fashioned romantic stuff" (Humphrey Carpenter, A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound , NY, 1988, p.139). Reviews were cautious, but criticism of his continual tendency towards literary allusion in some way affected and molded Pound's later approach. AN EXCEPTIONALLY IMPORTANT COPY, SIGNIFICANTLY REVISED AND ANNOTATED BY POUND. On the front free endpaper, Pound has written "Ezra Pound corrected copy." His corrections include correcting and then deleting the epigram, replacing the note regarding previous publications, altering the arrangement of the poems, suggesting the removal of six poems and adding formatting notes throughout, altering spacing and punctuation. The note regarding previous publication has been altered to read: "Some of these poems appeared in The English Review during the editorship of Ford Madox Hueffer [Ford]," which adds reference to his personal debt to Ford. Significant revisions are made to the poems "Sandalphon" and "Alba Innominata." Most notable is the fact that none of Pound's changes has been incorporated into any subsequent edition, making this the only record of Pound's intended revisions. Gallup A4a.