Dust jacket has color fading and wear, most pronounced around the spine. Front and Back Hardcover have minor signs of wear. Inside front and back cover have some color fading . Last page of book - a blank page - has signs of folding. Pages clean with no stains, marks, or notations. Overall in Very Good Condition. See photos for item description.
THE TUNE OF THE CALLIOPE Poems and Drawings of New York
Poems by Aaron Kramer
Drawings by
Philip Reisman
Joseph Solman
Edward Strickland
Theodore Fried
Jean Hale
Louis Harris
Herbert Kruckman
Estelle Tambak
Saul Lishinsky
Alice Neel
Anthony Toney
Hilde Weingarten
Back Cover Description:
""THE TUNE OF THE CALLIOPE is a nostalgic title. The familiar
merry-go-round bearing the name of the antique goddess reflects the
impact of the past upon the present, one of the conflicts in the cycle
of life. As the city unwinds its daily routines of business and
pleasures, the senses of an artist may be arrested at certain moments
when a subject suggests memories and an impending future: old buildings
vainly herald their former stature with rococo stonework in the shadow
of more recent block-like structures; two or three generations of people
who differ sharply; a face in meditation, haunted, expectant; a person
in stark misery or twisted agony enveloped in quiet; dry flowers whisper
of their would-be bloom through the dust-filtered light while a glassy
highlight screams; an air of isolation in a hurly-burly scene. The
choice of subject is entirely the artist's. The image he renders may
sometimes assume an unfamiliar, mythical shape, and yet its source in
reality is felt. Is not this source, reality, the base of more than one
art? So it is, and so was our present book conceived as an implied
equivalence of two arts, each independently produced....
"Putting together a literary form, poems, with a plastic form, drawings,
may be an accomplishment deeply felt, logical, and desirable. It is
hoped that this book will be found challenging in its esthetic content
and useful in building a larger audience for the best of contemporary
art."-From the Introduction by SAUL LISHINSKY'"
Inside Cover Description:
" Between the covers of this book, the gifts of two arts have been pooled
in an impressive joint exhibition-forty- eight full-page drawings, four
each by twelve distinguished contemporary artists, and seventy poems by
one of America's most talented poets, Aaron Kramer. New York-or any city
for that matter-with its moods and experiences is the general theme.
Most remarkable, considering the variations in approach and style, is
the final harmony achieved by the artists with one another and with
the poet-a harmony that can perhaps best be defined in terms of the
humanity, excitement, and sensitivity with which they have responded to
the world of New York.
This volume is unique in that the matching of a page of poetry with the
drawing facing it was done on the basis of mood, neither art form liter-
ally illustrating or being subordinate to the other in any sense.
Although projects of this nature have been successfully undertaken in
several other countries, The Tune of the Calliope is probably the first
book of its kind ever published in the United States.
The artists have all exhibited extensively; several have achieved national recognition. Their works have been warmly received by well-known art critics who have noted such
qualities as: "solidly built, with masterly construction . . ."
"positive appraisal and penetrating understanding of human beings . . ."
"very sensitive talent and imagination . . an artist of really imposing
stature . . . "pictures of incomparable richness, skill, and
sensitiveness ."compelling sincerity . . ." "a satiric gift revealed by a searching tactile line and "rich humor and precise tones . . ."rich humor and dramatic tempo ." "quiet ordinary people and things seen with astonishing tenderness and true poetic feeling..." "glowing light . . . warm
humanity..." "powerful drawings . . ." "a sharp sense of reality . .
."
These qualities are amply evident in the drawings that appear in this
collection. Together with the poems, they offer a fresh and vigorous
interpretation of New York-an inspired view of its people and scenes, a
probing insight into its heart and essence.
About the Poet
Aaron Kramer, who was born in New York City in 1921, is the author of
ten volumes of poetry. He has served as a judge in numerous nationwide
poetry contests, including the Goethe Bicentennial (1949) and the Lola
Ridge Memorial (1951), and is chairman of judges for the Poetry Society
of America.
"Aaron Kramer's work is . . . remarkable not only for rhythmic fluency,
the united simplicity and distinction of its language, but also for
genuine originality and emotional power Profoundly a poet of the city,
he has the extraordinary knack of investing the common- places of the
streets with just such an ecstatic wonder as Keats brought to his
perilous seas and faery lands. . . . He is more than an observer; he has
convictions and can express them passionately." -Joy Davidman
"No one currently writing poetry in this country is more likely than
Aaron Kramer to make important contributions to poetic progress.
He is a poet born as truly as ever were Shelley, Keats, Blake, Yeats, and Gerard Hopkins." -Shaemas O'Sheel"