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Zagajewski, Adam (Translated by Clare Cavanagh) : A Defense Of Ardor: Essays

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York City, NY, 2004

ISBN 0374136300

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 198 pages. The author's fourth collection of essays. One of the greatest books of our time. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Adam Zagajewski's "A Defense of Ardor: Essays" in a felicitous English translation. Another masterly achievement from a poet-genius who writes poet's prose: Fourteen essays that make up the great poet's "defense". An engaging and witty blend of literary comment and memoir, it is passionate about aesthetic matters, but refreshingly free of personal rancor. "Thoughtful; precise; rhapsodic; rueful; courteous; prone to wonder. Nothing could take the reader in a direction more contrary to today's cult of the excitements of self than to follow Zagajewski as he unspools his seductive praise of serenity, sympathy, forbearance, of the calm and courage of an ordinary life. Zagajewski writes indispensable prose" (Susan Sontag). The only American writer of our time who has written a comparable polemic on behalf of literature-as-life is Cynthia Ozick, and it cannot be an accident that one of her most brilliant collections is called "Art & Ardor". An absolute "must-have" title for Adam Zagajewski collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed, placed, and dated (in the month and year of publication) in black ink-pen on the title page by the author: "Adam Zagajewski Seattle, May 2005". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only such signed, placed, and publication-month dated copy of the First American Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI, CZESLAW MILOSZ, WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA, AND THOMASZ ROZYCKI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374136300.

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