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Vintage 1958 Poemscapes Kenneth Patchen Jonathan Williams Poetry Softcover
Title: Poemscapes.
Author: Kenneth Patchen.
Format: Vintage 1958 softcover poetry collection in photo-illustrated wraps.
Publisher: Jonathan Williams, Highlands, North Carolina, United States.
Publication details: Title page lists Jonathan Williams Publisher 1958, Highlands, North Carolina; copyright page states Copyright 1958 by Kenneth Patchen, noting that some of the Poemscapes first appeared in Poetry (Chicago) and New Directions 14.
Language: English.
Subject/Genre: Poetry; literature and fiction; mid-twentieth-century American small-press verse.
Contents: Collection of numbered Poemscapes presented as short lyric and prose-poem sections under Roman-numeral headings such as Poem I Scape, Poem V Scape, Poem XXI Scape, and Poem XXXV Scape, exploring themes of love, wonder, nonessentialism, everyday life, and surreal imagery.
Interior: Text is set in a single-column serif type with bold display lettering for title and section headings; front matter includes a dedication For Miriam, and later pages feature an extended author statement by Kenneth Patchen printed on the inner wrap alongside a list of his other works.
Cover design: Front wrap features a black-and-white photographic portrait of Kenneth Patchen against a stone wall with the title Poemscapes in decorative orange lettering above and the author\'s name below; rear wrap carries an appreciative statement on Patchen\'s work by Henry Miller dated March 8, 1957, Big Sur, California.
Special attributes: Jonathan Williams paperback edition of Kenneth Patchen\'s Poemscapes, notable for its combination of experimental poetry and prose meditations and for the contemporary endorsement by Henry Miller on the rear cover, appealing to readers and collectors of midcentury American poetry and independent press publications.
Condition: Photo-illustrated wraps show overall handling wear with scattered foxing spots, faint soiling, and toning, along with lightly rubbed spine and corners. Spine titling remains legible. Page edges are uniformly age-toned with a few small spots. Interior pages in the sections shown are evenly toned but clean and fully legible. Front blank bears a small pencil price at the upper corner; no additional writing, underlining, or loose leaves visible. Binding is square and secure in the openings photographed.
