The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus.

CATULLUS, Gaius Valerius. [Translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton].

$300.00

Item Number: 128056

New York: Privately Printed for Subscribers Only, 1928.

Limited edition of The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus, translated by Sir Richard F. Burton and Leonard C. Smithers. Octavo, original boards, illustrated with eight full page plates, rebacked. One of seven hundred and fifty numbered copies, this is number 170. From the library of Oliver Craus Safir with his ownership signature and, subsequently his son, William Safire, with his bookplate to the pastedown. William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and supported him again in 1968. After Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and Spiro Agnew. He authored several political columns in addition to his weekly column “On Language” in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death and authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. In very good condition.

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His surviving works are still read widely and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art. Catullus's poems were widely appreciated by contemporary poets, significantly influencing Ovid and Virgil, among others. After his rediscovery in the Late Middle Ages, Catullus again found admirers such as Petrarca. The explicit sexual imagery which he uses in some of his poems has shocked many readers. Yet, at many instruction levels, Catullus is considered a resource for teachers of Latin.