Under Stars, Poems - inscribed to Chuck Kinder & Diane Cecily
Port Townsend: Graywolf Press, C. 1978. First Edition. Wraps. Trade softcover, very good minus, with light creasing to covers, light soil. Signed by Gallagher, and inscribed, “For Chuck & Diane — your hospitality and thoughtfulness this past Thanksgiving will be well remembered. Ray & I look so very happy in that time from the pictures & in my memory. Soon again. Love, Tess, Dec. 1978. Merry Christmas.” (Carver had a final split from his first wife, Maryann, in 1977, and met Gallagher at a writers’ conference in Dallas in 1978 — they began living together from later 1978 on and got married in 1988 shortly before his death from lung cancer. Carver and Gallagher were very close friends with Kinder & Cecily, and some of their interactions and experiences together are fictionalized in Kinder’s The Honeymooners). From the library of Chuck Kinder (1946-2019) and Diane Cecily. Kinder, a native of West Virginia, was a legendary creative writing professor at Pitt, famous for having been Raymond Carver’s dear friend in the 1970s-80s (“my best friend, drinking companion and fellow outlaw”) and for inspiring Michael Chabon, whose character Grady Tripp in “Wonder Boys” is Chabon’s loving tribute to his old mentor. As a Stegner Fellow at Stanford in 1972, Kinder became close friends with Scott Turow, Richard Price, Max Crawford, William Kittredge, and Carver, and later Richard Ford, Gurney Norman, Ed McClanahan, Tess Gallagher, Tobias Wolff, and S. Clay Wilson. His wife, Diane Cecily (1942-2026) was Raymond Carver’s love interest in the early 1970s, and was well acquainted with the Missoula bunch that Kinder had become involved with. They married in 1975 and when Kinder took a job at Pitt in 1980, their home quickly became the heart of the local literary scene. The two were known for their nurturing generosity, storytelling, loyalty and hospitality, and they were great believers in the supportive power of literary communities. Theirs was a moveable feast. Very good. Item #h45037
Price: $150.00