Widow Basquiat
Edinburgh: Payback Press, 2000.
First printing. 184 pp., 5.25 x 7.75 inches. Perfect-bound in printed card covers. Inscribed by the author. Cover lamination rubbed and scuffed, mild bump to one corner, very faint marking to edges, still very good. Item #4136
Jennifer Clement’s poetic biography of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat and his muse, Suzanne Mallouk, an evocation of the New York City art scene of the 1980s. Written from the inside (Clement was a close friend of Mallouk), the book was acclaimed on publication as a “must read.”
Clement, current president of PEN International (and the first woman to hold that position), has lived in Mexico City for many years (and was President of the Mexico chapter from 2009–12). This copy of Widow Basquiat is warmly inscribed, in the year of publication, to Uruguayan-born Mexican poet and translator Ulalume González de León and her husband, poet Jorge Hernández Campos. In addition, an invitation to a panel for the Mexico City launch of the Spanish-language edition of the book is laid in; Clement has noted Ulalume and Jorge’s names on the envelope.
The original edition is uncommon; signed copies only more so.
Price: $250.00