Dante’s Inferno. Translations by Twenty Contemporary Poets. Introduced by James Merrill. With an afterword by Guiseppe Mazzotta. Edited by Daniel Halpern. New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1993. First Edition, Limited Issue. A finely crafted edition, bound in black morocco-backed red linen with gilt lettering direct on the spine, housed in the publisher’s slipcase. The text shows some scattered pale spotting to the preliminary leaves and carries a light musty odour, but remains otherwise a bright, well-preserved copy.

This is a Limited Edition of 145 copies, with the present being copy no. 69 of 125 numbered copies signed by all the contributing poets. The volume includes a signed frontispiece by Francesco Clemente, laid in, and bears the requisite signatures on the colophon from an extraordinary assembly of poets:

Seamus Heaney, Richard Wilbur, W. S. Merwin, Amy Clampitt, Mark Strand, Robert Pinsky, Galway Kinnell, Cynthia Macdonald, Jorie Graham, Charles Wright, Richard Howard, Stanley Plumly, C. K. Williams, Susan Mitchell, Carolyn Forché, Alfred Corn, Sharon Olds, Deborah Digges, Robert Hass, James Merrill, and Daniel Halpern.

This collaborative translation into English features each poet rendering their assigned canto(s) in a variety of styles—whether terza rima, modified rhyme schemes, blank verse, free verse, or prose-inflected rhythms—resulting in a rich and dynamic interpretation of Dante’s masterpiece.

The book has been exquisitely printed by Michael and Winifred Bixler on heavy Rives paper, following a design by Peter A. Andersen, and bound by Claudia Cohen, making it a true bibliophilic treasure.