The Fifth Decad of Cantos

by Ezra Pound

First U.S. edition.  Norfolk, CT:  New Directions, 1937  

Hardback is overall in VERY GOOD+ condition, with a VERY GOOD DJ under Mylar.

• Black covers are mostly clean, with silver gilt text at spine.  Lower corners are slightly scuffed.  See photos. 
• Spine has silver text and is bright with softened ends.
• Binding is strong. 
• Pastedowns and feps have some staining.  See photos. 
• Interior is gently age-toned, exhibits a stain at head of page 23.  See photos.  
• Inside pages are free of writing and intentional marks.
• Text block has some light foxing to head edge.  See photos.
• DJ looks great behind Mylar.  Close examination of DJ reveals light edgewear including possible bumps, rubbing, and/or tiny closed tears, small chips to spine ends, a crease near head.  See photos.
• PS2026.0507

46 pages. 5 7/8 x 8 5/8 inches

First Edition, Second issue.  Publisher's black boards with silver title at spine.  Dust jacket, identical to first issue, unclipped with $1.50 price intact and Farrar & Rinehart on back cover.  Boards retain their original sheen, title is bright.  Pastedowns are browned, as with other copies, interior is evenly tanned.  A stain at the head of page 23, else unmarked.  Jacket is toned, more at spine strip, with edgewear and chipping to corners and spine ends.  A Very Good+ copy of this scarce work.

With just a few hundred copies published, The Fifth Decad of Cantos is one of the scarcest trade issues of Pound's Cantos.  This is the third installment of the monumental work by poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972), containing Cantos XLII - LI.  A seminal work in the modernist canon.  Jacket blurbs by Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, and Ford Madox Ford praise Pound's work.

First American edition, Second issue.  Full edition was 750 copies, 419 of which were purchased from Farrar and Rinehart and issued by New Directions with a cancel title-leaf.  Copyright on verso of title page reads 1937, but issued summer 1940.  Dustwrapper identical to first issue.  

Please see photos. More photos available upon request.

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