Paterson (Books One - Five) [Five volume set]

New York: New Directions, 1958. Very Good +/Very Good +. New York: New Directions, 1946-1958. First Editions. Five tall octavo volumes. Printed dust jackets over light gray cloth boards. Housed in custom-made white cloth slipcase with black leather title label to spine. Unclipped dust jackets are toned with some slight chipping to edges. Boards show light shelfwear with faint toning to edges; bindings sound; pages unmarked. A few smudges to slipcase, else sturdy and solid. A Very Good or better set of Williams' epic poem, influenced by Joyce's "Ulysses" and Crane's "The Bridge," and in which Williams attempted to explore "the resemblance between the mind of modern man and the city" and following, in chronology and geography, the course of a river and its four movements and its parallels to a man's life.

Connolly 100; Beach "The Cambridge Introduction to Twentieth Century Poetry," pp. 110-111.