Joan Baez "When You See My Mother, Ask Her To Dance" Signed First Edition, First Printing w/COA [Fine/Fine]

Personally signed by Joan Baez, the legendary artist and activist who has earned global recognition.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING WITH COA

David R. Godine, Publisher 2024. Joan Baez "When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance: Poems". Signed First Edition, First Printing. Personally signed by Joan Baez directly into the book on the FFEP (First Free End Paper). Hardcover book with dust-jacket. Includes bookseller issued COA. 

"First Printing, 2024" as required on the copyright page.

Joan Baez is a dynamic force of nature. Her commitment to music and social activism has earned global recognition, ranging from induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, to the Ambassador of Conscience Award, Amnesty International’s highest honor. Retired from active performing since 2019, she has devoted much of her time to the “Mischief Makers” series of paintings, portraits that immortalize risk-taking visionaries she has known, who have brought about social change through history, from Dr. Martin Luther King and Bob Dylan to the Dalai Lama and Patti Smith. Ms. Baez’s acclaimed book of drawings, Am I Pretty When I Fly? was also published by Godine.

About the book

An intimate, autobiographical poetry collection from legendary artist and activist, Joan Baez.

Joan Baez shares poems for or about her contemporaries (such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Jimi Hendrix), reflections from her childhood, personal thoughts, and cherished memories of her family, including pieces about her younger sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Fariña. Speaking to the people, places, and moments that have had the greatest impact on her art, this collection is an inspiring personal diary in the form of poetry.

While Baez has been writing poetry for decades, she’s never shared it publicly. Poems about her life, her family, about her passions for nature and art, have piled up in notebooks and on scraps of paper. Now, for the first time ever, her life is shared revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped an icon, offering a never-before-seen look into the reminiscences and musings of a great artist.

Like a late-night chat with someone you love, this collection connects fans to the real heart of who Joan Baez is as a person, as a daughter and sister, and as an artist who has inspired millions.

Reviews

AN INDIE POETRY BOOK BESTSELLER

“Powerful and eye-opening”
—Boston Globe

“An American icon revisiting her archives and taking back her history.”
—Vanity Fair

“Drily funny and wise.”
—The Independent (UK)

“Joan Baez wraps her arms around the complexities of life: she writes from both bliss and grief; she embraces both the whimsical and the profound; she confronts the struggle to let go of the dichotomy black-and-white and revel in the gray. Baez’s poetry shows us that life itself means accepting both the lightness and the darkness.”
—Richard Blanco, author of Homeland of My Body

“Joan’s ideas and musings ricochet from the profound and humanly factual to the observant and slyly humorous. Her words can be both poignantly executed and captivating in a colorful closeness that pin-points the chinks in our armor that mirror all facets of the world we inhabit. A national treasure she is indeed.”
—Bernie Taupin, author of Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me

“In these courageous and soul-searching poems, Joan Baez reveals the joy and sorrow of a life lived fully. Her deceptively simple and elegant verses resonate with profound insight into what it means to be alive, looking Janus-like from past to present. Beautiful.”
—Gabriel Byrne, author of Walking with Ghosts

“The artist’s urgency to account for ‘talents’ (see Matthew 25: 14-30), to complete the record and reckoning, informs this sumptuous debut collection of poems. To her work in song, on canvas, in advocacy for the human causes, this work in words claims its place among Ms. Baez’s free-range creations. Brava, is the thing I say, and write on!”
—Thomas Lynch, author of Bone Rosary: New & Selected Poems

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more than 30 albums.

Baez is generally regarded as a folk singer, but her music has diversified since the counterculture era of the 1960s and encompasses genres such as folk rock, pop, country, and gospel music. She began her recording career in 1960 and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2 and Joan Baez in Concert, all achieved gold record status. Although a songwriter herself, Baez generally interprets others' work, having recorded many traditional songs and songs written by the Allman Brothers Band, the Beatles, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Woody Guthrie, Violeta Parra, the Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, and many others. She was one of the first major artists to record songs by Bob Dylan in the early 1960s; Baez was already an internationally celebrated artist and did much to popularize his early songwriting efforts. Her tumultuous relationship with Dylan later became the subject of songs by each of them and generated much public speculation. On her later albums she has found success interpreting the work of more recent songwriters, including Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter, Steve Earle, Natalie Merchant, and Joe Henry.

Baez's songs include "Diamonds & Rust" and covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". She also recorded "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Forever Young", "Here's to You", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome". Baez performed fourteen songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights, and the environment. Baez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 7, 2017.