Section: Rock-Drill (1955)
A70
Editions
a. First edition
EZRA POUND | SECTION: ROCK-DRILL | [em black: 85-95 | de los cantares | [device] | ALL’INSEGNA DEL PESCE p’oro | MILANO + MCMLY [Vanni Scheiwiller]
1 blank leaf, 3 leaves, 107, [1] pp., 1 leaf, 1 blank leaf. 20.6 x 12.6 cm. Grey paper boards printed in brown and black on front cover and in black up the spine; end-papers. Plain cellophane dust-jacket. Half-title: Cantos 85-95 of Ezra Pound Published September 1955 at L. 2000; 506 copies printed. Colophon (page [109]): Questa edizione originale dei Cantos 85-95 di Ezra Pound curata da Vanni Scheiwiller & stata impressa dalla Stamperia Valdonega di Verona in cinquecento esemplari numerati e in tre esemplari su carta japon “ad personam” per il 12 settembre 1955. Esemplare [number written in] (The three de luxe copies and one proof copy were bound in beige silk stamped in red on the front cover and up the spine: they measure 21.3 x 13 cm. and were issued in a tan papercovered box measuring 21.8 x 13.3 cm. They have at the end of the colophon in place of the word “Esemplare,” “Questo esemplare é stato stampato per ... [name of recipient printed in].” Two extra sets of sheets for de luxe copies were bound in 1965, one for the publisher himself (to replace his original copy stolen), the other for DG. “This volume has been printed in conformity with the typographical instructions given by the author.” (Wore, p. [108])
Note: This section of the Cantos derives its name from the title of a review by Wyndham Lewis of The Letters of Ezra Pound—A64b—in the New Statesman and Nation for 7 April 1951: “The Rock Drill,” itself a reference to Jacob Epstein’s sculpture of that title of 1915-1916.
b. First American (offset) edition ([1956])
[In black:] EZRA POUND | [in grey:] SECTION: ROCK-DRILL | [in black:] 85-95 | de los cantares | A NEW DIRECTIONS Book [New York, James Laughlin]
1 blank leaf, 3 leaves, 107, [1] pp., 2 blank leaves. 20.6 x 13 cm. Black cloth boards lettered in silver down the spine; end-papers. Grey dust-jacket printed in red-brown. Published 30 March 1956 at $3.00; 2081 copies printed. On verso of title-leaf: ... First Printing Manufactured in the United States [Printed by offset from the first edition] New Directions Books are published by James Laughlin New York Office—333 Sixth Avenue—14
c. c. First English (offset) edition ([1957])
[In black:]| EZRA POUND | SECTION: ROCK-DRILL | [in black:] 85-95 | de los cantares | FABER AND FABER | 24 Russell Square | London
2 leaves, 107, [1] pp. 20.8 x 13.6 cm. Black cloth boards stamped in gold down the spine; end-papers. Yellow dust-jacket printed in red-brown.
Published 15 February 1957 at 12s. 6d.; 2000 copies printed. On verso of title-leaf: First published in England in memlvii ... Printed in Great Britain by Bradford & Dickens London WCI ... Reproduced, by permission, from the original edition published by Vanni Scheiwiller, All’Insegna del Pesce d’Oro, Milan, 1955...
Content is now editable.