Villon, Francois. Translated with an introduction and notes by Galway Kinnell. [François Villon]

The Poems of Francois Villon. [François Villon]

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. First edition. Hardcover. SIGNED by the translator with a brief inscription in blue ink on the title page ("for ______ | Galway Kinnell | Port Townsend | July 17, 1980"). The inscription is to a noted Pacific Northwest poet and collector, whose name is also written neatly in ink on the front free endpaper. 246pp. Octavo [22cm]; full black cloth with gilt stamping. In the original pictorial dust jacket. Dust jacket shows some light rubbing, shelfwear, and is lightly sunned at its spine. The volume is square and sharp, clean and unmarked. Near Fine / Very Good +. Item #70800
ISBN: 0395257174

This edition includes the French text – based on the authoritative Longnon-Foulet edition of 1932 – facing the English, and a critical introduction, explanatory notes, and a selected bibliography. Signed here with a brief inscription by the translator, Galway Kinnell.

"François Villon lived five centuries ago. Of his life little more than a shadowy legend remains—the legend of a student turned vagabond and thief, living amid desperate poverty and violence. Yet the poems Villon created strike the modern reader with singular clarity. He was the first great poet of the city; the first to make art from the harsh physical realities and unsentimental vision of life lived in the urban lower depths. His is a poetry that is direct, forceful, yet infinitely supple, capable of biting satire, uninhibited ribaldry, gallows humor—and capable, too, of unsurpassed lyric flight and haunting poignancy" (Houghton Mifflin Company).

Price: $100.00