Four Poems of Departure

Portland: Trace Editions, 1983. Limited Edition. Staplebound. Very good. 16mo, pp. [16]. Staple-bound paperback. "Four Poems of Departure" was published in an edition of 500 copies, with ink drawings "from an anonymous suite entitled Pilgrims (after Michaux)." There is also an unattached bookplate signed by Wright. Charles Wright (1935 -- ) was born at Pickwick Dam, Tennessee, and attended Davidson College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. (He should not be confused with the novelist Charles Wright.) Wright served four years in the U.S. Army, and it was while stationed in Italy that he began to read and write poetry. To date, he has authored over 20 books of poetry. He shared the National Book Award in 1983 for "Country Music: Selected Early Poems," and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for "Black Zodiac." From 2014 to 2015, he was the 20th Poet Laureate of the United States.