A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat

Arthur Rimbaud

Though some poems I loved when I was young have lost their sting over the years, Rimbaud’s ‘The Drunken Boat’ still exhilarates me as much as it ever did.

Donna Tartt, The New York Times

A reissue of Rimbaud’s highly influential work, with a new preface by Patti Smith and the original 1945 ND cover design by Alvin Lustig

A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat

Poetry by Arthur Rimbaud

Translated from French by Louise Varese

With a contribution by Patti Smith

New Directions is pleased to announce the relaunch of the long-celebrated bilingual edition of Rimbaud’s A Season In Hell & The Drunken Boat — a personal poem of damnation as well as a plea to be released from “the examination of his own depths.” Rimbaud originally distributed A Season In Hell to friends as a self-published booklet, and soon afterward, at the age of nineteen, quit poetry altogether. New Directions’ edition was among the first to be published in the U.S., and quickly became a classic. Rimbaud’s famous poem “The Drunken Boat” was subsequently added to the first paperbook printing. Allen Ginsberg proclaimed Arthur Rimbaud as “the first punk” — a visionary mentor to the Beats for both his recklessness and his fiery poetry. This new edition proudly dons the original Alvin Lustig designed cover, and a introduction by another famous rebel — and now National Book Award-winner — Patti Smith.

Buy A Season in Hell & The Drunken Boat

Paperback(published Oct, 05 2011)

ISBN
9780811201858
Price US
12.95
Page Count
120

Ebook(published Oct, 05 2011)

ISBN
9780811221030
Price US
12.95
Portrait of Arthur Rimbaud

Arthur Rimbaud

19th century French poet

Though some poems I loved when I was young have lost their sting over the years, Rimbaud’s ‘The Drunken Boat’ still exhilarates me as much as it ever did.

Donna Tartt, The New York Times

We pray for him, offering love. History praises him, offering laurels. Mercy sings of him, offering absolution. Arthur Rimbaud, in his long suffering, has at last attained God’s favor.

Patti Smith

One of the greatest poets who ever lived.

Newsweek

If we are absolutely modern — and we are — it is because Rimbaud commanded us to be.

John Ashbery