New and Selected Poems
Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.
First edition, fourth printing. Signed by Mary Oliver on the front free endpaper and inscribed "For Emma, with good wishes, Mary Oliver. February 9, 1994. Sweet Briar, VA." The book was gifted to Emma by a woman named Jocelyn, and a cardinal-shaped Valentine's card laid in describes the circumstances of the signing: "I visited Mary Oliver and told her about you and Pandora. She wanted to write in your book." Additional inscription by Oliver to p. 16, at the end of the poem "Her Grave:" "Mine was Luke, Yours was Pandora."
xii, 255, [3] pp. Bound in publisher's quarter green cloth over green paper-covered boards, spine lettered in gilt. Near Fine with light fading to extremities and foxing to textblock edges, light toning to contents, and smudging and ownership signature to front endsheet. In a Very Good+ price-clipped dust jacket with light toning and shelfwear, light foxing to verso, and slight marring to laminate on front panel.
The first volume of Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems, which won the National Book Award in 1992, with a charmingly personal inscription. Luke was the poet's late and much-loved dog, the subject of several of her poems. The book's recipient, Emma, clearly had a similar relationship with her own beloved Pandora.
Price: $1,800