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(Ninja Press) The Real World of Manuel Cordova. [Poem by] W. S. Merwin. Design, presswork, and binding all by Carolee Campbell at the Ninja Press. Sherman Oaks. California. 1995. Accordion fold. 47p. 3.5″ x 13.25″ – closed. The text may be unfolded and read in hand, stanza by stanza, or opened entirely, revealing all forty-three, fourteen-line stanzas. Fully extended, the book is 15′ long. The image of a river undulating alongside the poem is printed from photopolymer plates in five colors gradually intermingling one after the other. Printed in handset Samson Uncial on to kakishibu, a persimmon-washed handmade paper from Japan. Book enclosed in an open-sided folder of handmade papers, the outer one in cream with title and author labels on spine and the inner on kakishibu on which is printed a map of the world, the first to show the world’s currents, drawn by Athanasius Kircher in 1665. Map hand-tinted in five colors echoing the colors of the river. Enclosure fastened with a alum-tawed goatskin and bone. Lucite slipcase. No. 80 in an edition of 160 numbered copies, signed by the poet, as well as 18 lettered H.C. copies. Fine.

This poem is based on a book about the life of Manuel Cordova Rios (1887-1978), who was kidnapped by a remote Amazonian tribe in 1907, and taught to become a shaman.

Related items: Catalogue 37 - Summer 2009, Poetry