Pound, Ezra (1885–1972)

The Spirit of Romance [Modernism, Poetry Studies, Medieval Literature]

New York: New Directions, c1952. Hardcover with Dust Jacket.

Dark blue cloth with gilt spine titles, in matching blue dust jacket with gold lettering. Signed ownership of poet and scholar Ralph J. Mills Jr. (1931–2007) on the front free endpaper. Reissue of the 1910 work, originally published by J.M. Dent, later revised and reissued by New Directions under the editorship of James Laughlin.  Printed in Ireland.

The bindings are tight and square. Text is clean; modest, even age-toning. Minimal shelf handling wear with a tiny rub at the top of the spine corner. Previous owner’s name on the top of the front free endpage. Octavo; 8.5 inches tall; 7-348 pages with an index. The dust jacket, unclipped ($3.50), shows mild toning to the spine panel and light edge wear.

First published in 1910, The Spirit of Romance was Ezra Pound’s earliest major work of literary criticism, establishing the intellectual foundation for his later poetics and the emerging modernist movement.

Drawing from medieval Romance and Provençal literature, Pound sought the roots of poetic expression in the troubadour tradition—an approach that shaped both his own verse and the theories of Imagism. 

The New Directions edition, part of James Laughlin’s ongoing effort to preserve and reissue Pound’s major writings, made this crucial early text accessible to a new generation of readers and scholars in postwar America.

GenresSubjects: Ezra Pound, New Directions Press, Modernist Criticism, Troubadour Poetry, Provençal Literature, Ralph J. Mills Jr. Provenance, Literary Criticism, Modernism, Poetry Studies, Medieval Literature.

Item #21234

Price: $85.00