Loba (1978/1998) Signed First Edition Reference

Loba is Diane di Prima’s magnum opus — an epic poem that she worked on from the early 1970s through the late 1990s, published in various partial versions before the definitive Penguin edition appeared in 1998. The title refers to the she-wolf (loba in Spanish), and the poem reclaims a feminine mythological tradition from prehistory through the present, weaving together goddesses, historical women, personal autobiography, and visionary imagery.

The Poem

Loba is di Prima’s answer to the masculine epic tradition — Olson’s Maximus, Pound’s Cantos, Ginsberg’s Fall of America. Where those poems organize themselves around geography, history, or politics, Loba is organized around the feminine divine, tracing the she-wolf archetype through Lilith, Persephone, the Virgin Mary, historical witches, and contemporary women.

The poem is deliberately sprawling and polyvocal, shifting between lyric, narrative, incantation, and prose. It reflects di Prima’s decades of study in mythology, Hermeticism, alchemy, and feminist spirituality. The result is a poem that is by turns beautiful, opaque, ecstatic, and scholarly — a genuine contribution to the American long-poem tradition that has not yet received the critical attention it deserves.

Publication History

• Part I published by Wingbow Press, 1978
• Parts I & II published by Wingbow Press, 1988
• Definitive edition (Parts I & II) published by Penguin, 1998

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed Wingbow Press Part I (1978): $200–$500
• Signed Penguin definitive edition (1998): $75–$200
• Inscribed copies: $100–$400
• Unsigned first editions: $20–$60

The Wingbow Press first edition of Part I is the most collectible version, but the Penguin definitive edition is the complete text. Signed copies of either are available in the dealer market, as di Prima signed consistently at West Coast readings and events.