Home from the Cemetery. (Association Copy, Bread Loaf, Inscribed and Signed)

“Pack’s words are raw. He has made the decision to let the language exert its own power…”

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First edition. At top of front endpaper: “D.R. McKay. Bread Loaf 1971.” Beneath: “For Debby — Bread Loaf’s warmest, loveliest wench. I hope this book will continue to bring you pleasure. Bob Pack”

Inserted into the book is a typed sheet serving as a critical note or informal review of Home from the Cemetery, with a correction or two in Pack’s hand. In part: “Pack is a passionate man. At Bread Loaf, one late night, Carolynn and I sat on his lap, all of us drunk, and we kept saying to him that he should tell us about everything, tell us, tell us, we were breathing all over his face and telling him how wonderful he was, which was perfectly true, and Michael told us later that for a long period there, Pack was speechless, just sat grinning in the chair. The passion comes out here in the language of the poems: that same energy I spoke of in Guarded By Women, now even stronger and more disciplined. The language is explosive, and the humor is perfected, like in “Love” and “Hunger,” that crazy horrible humor, which makes up so much of Pack’s own humility….”

Peck has also annotated pp. 43, 45, 47, 50 and 92 to note that certain poems were read at Bread Loaf.

Price: $75.00