Nov 10, 2009 - Sale 2195

Sale 2195 - Lot 196

Price Realized: $ 1,020
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
McGRAW, DeLOSS; and SNODGRASS, W.D. The House the Poet Built. 10 hand-tinted etchings by McGraw to accompany the poem by Snodgrass. 246x44 mm; 9 3/4x15 3/4 inches (sheets). Oblong folio, contents loose as issued in fabric clamshell box with etching by McGraw printed on cover. number 2 of only 30 copies signed by mcgraw and snodgrass. San Diego: Brighton Press, 1985

Additional Details

"In the summer of 1985, painter DeLoss McGraw arrived at the door of poet W. D. Snodgrass's country house near Erieville, New York, bearing a mysterious wooden box. The next morning McGraw opened the box to reveal ten prepared etching plates neatly separated to protect their surface. He proposed that W. D. write a short phrase at the top of each plate and McGraw would respond with an image underneath. The artist suggested that these ten phrases might become a poem. What happened as a result is a delightful and very personal retelling of 'The House that Jack Built' in which the poet becomes the 'daft old bard' and finds himself at the center of a whirring menagerie. McGraw's sensitive images perfectly capture the wondrous activity around the poet's house"--from the Brighton Press web site.