Carta da Visita (1942)
A50
Editions
a. First edition
CARTA DA visita | DI | EZRA POUND | | 1942—XXI | EDIZIONI DI LETTERE D’OGGI [Giambattista Vicari]
62 pp. 1 blank leaf, incl. illus. 17.6 x 12.6 cm. Heavy white paper wrappers, printed in pink, black, and green on page [i], on spine and on back flap, and in pink and black on front flap and on page [iv]; edges untrimmed. (A later state of the wrappers has the price on page [iv]: SEDICI LIRE).
Published December 1942 at L. 8 (later raised to L. 16) as “Biblioteca minima tempus, 3”; 1150 copies printed. Colophon (page [2]): Questo libro ... & stato 66 stampato in Roma il I. dicembre 1942—XXI presso L’Istituto Grafico Tiberino ... Di questo volume vengono stampate 1000 copie in tiratura ordinaria pit 150 copie in tiratura speciale numerate da I a 150 [None of the special copies has been located.]
Note: A new edition (2000 numbered copies) of this pamphlet was published in Milan in July 1974 by Vanni Scheiwiller, “ALL’INSEGNA del Pesce d’Oro,” as “Il Passato Presente, 4.” It collates: 1 blank leaf, 3 leaves, 9-57 pp., 5 leaves, incl. front. (port.) and measures 21.2 x 15 cm.
b. First (unpublished ) edition in English (1952)
a | VISITING CARD | rst English Edition | By | ezRa POUND | [deogram| | PETER RUSSELL | 114b Queen’s Gate, London, S. W.7 | 1952 36 [2e. 38] pp., 1 leaf. 1 plate. 21.5 X 13.5 cm. Stiff cream paper wrappers printed in black and red on page [i] and in black on pages [ii-iv]; wire-stitched. Not published (but originally intended for sale at 2s. 6d. as “Money Pamphlets by £, No. 4”). On verso of title-leaf: Title of original work: Carta da Visita first published in Rome in 1942 The present translation is by John Drummond Imprint at foot of page [iv] of wrapper: Printed by Clements & Son (T. W.), Ltd., Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Before any copies were distributed or sold, a fire at the publisher’s destroyed all but five copies, which were badly charred. In this edition the bibliography on page [2] ends with 1951; in the fifth line up on page 18, the word “grain” is correctly spelled; and page 38 is misnumbered 36.
c. First (published) edition in English (1952)
Title-page as in the unpublished edition. 38 pp., 1 leaf. 1 plate. Size, binding, and series as in the unpublished edition. Published early in 1952 at 2s. 6d; 1000 copies printed. Verso of title-leaf and imprint at foot of page [iv] of wrapper as in the unpublished edition.
For this edition, which took the place of the burned one, the type was reset line for line. There are numerous variations in the arrangement and text of the preliminary and terminal advertisements; two titles of 1952 are added to the bibliography on page [2]; footnotes on pages 7, 15, and 18 vary; in the fifth line up on page 18, the word “grain” appears as “gain” (corrected in manuscript in some copies), and page 38 is correctly numbered.
Note: This English translation by John Drummond was reprinted, with some revisions, in Impact (1960)—A78—pp. 44-74, and, without those revisions, in Selected Prose 1909-1965 ([1973])—A93a—pp. 276-305 (306-35 in A93b).
Artefacts
No artefacts available for this item.
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