Between the Covers

Softcover. First edition, wrappered issue, published simultaneous with the hardcover edition. Moderate general wear, spine lightly toned, and most of the poems on the title page with inked checkmarks next to them (presumably in Eastlake's hand), a very good copy. Inscribed to author and friend William Eastlake on the half-title: "To Bill Eastlake with respect + admiration Jim Harrison."

William Eastlake is the author of the noted Checkerboard Trilogy. In 1955 he bought a 400-acre ranch in New Mexico that became a haven for writers like Edward Abbey, who made his first “pilgrimage” to the ranch in a Volkswagen bus, along with Robert Creeley, after reading Eastlake’s first novel, *Go in Beauty*. Eastlake said in 1975: “My original reason for coming to New Mexico was that the American West has never been written about. A great many illiterates (…) have tried (...) but never any artists (…) so I have moved in and staked it out. Our great West, the American promise, has been waiting for two hundred years to be discovered, and that has been my dedication and delight, my Seven Cities of Cibola.” Eastlake wrote a blurb for Harrison's first novel, *Wolf*. An excellent association.

Item #501240