Cavafy, Foreword by Gore Vidal, Ex Libris Gore Vidal
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[Ex Libris Gore Vidal] Cavafy, Constantine P. Before Time Could Change Them, The Complete Poems of Constantine P. Cavafy. First Edition. 2001. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is stamped “From the library of GORE VIDAL” on the flyleaf. Foreword by Gore Vidal. With a new translation by Theoharis C. Theoharis.
In this introduction to Cavafy, Gore Vidal (to whom this copy belonged) cannot help but mention his quasi step-sibling Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It is not mere name-dropping. The former first lady’s favorite poem was Cavafy’s final Homeric poem “Ithaca.” When her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman read it at Onassis’s memorial service, it generated much attention in the press and renewed interest in the Greek poet. This new translation organizes the poems in thematic order and emphasizes the tenderness and intensity of the love poems.
Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what has been ordained for you.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts many years;
--“Ithaca,” Constantine P. Cavafy
In this introduction to Cavafy, Gore Vidal (to whom this copy belonged) cannot help but mention his quasi step-sibling Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It is not mere name-dropping. The former first lady’s favorite poem was Cavafy’s final Homeric poem “Ithaca.” When her longtime companion Maurice Tempelsman read it at Onassis’s memorial service, it generated much attention in the press and renewed interest in the Greek poet. This new translation organizes the poems in thematic order and emphasizes the tenderness and intensity of the love poems.
Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what has been ordained for you.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts many years;
--“Ithaca,” Constantine P. Cavafy
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