Before she became one of the defining songwriters of her generation, Lana Del Rey wanted to be a poet. 

Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass is the result: a collection of poems, fragments, observations and photographs that sits somewhere between a notebook, an artist's journal and a memoir told in flashes.

The poems move through California landscapes, roadside America, celebrity, loneliness, desire, memory and self-invention. Some pieces read like lyrics stripped back to their skeleton, while others feel closer to diary entries or cinematic snapshots. Throughout the collection there is the same atmosphere that animates Del Rey's music: faded motels, endless highways, heat haze, glamour beginning to decay at the edges.

Beautifully produced with full-colour photographs throughout, this first edition offers a different way into Del Rey's creative world. Less polished than her albums and often more intimate, it captures an artist thinking on the page rather than performing from a stage.

First Australian edition, second printing (Simon & Schuster, 2020). Hardback. Very good condition with light shelf wear and clean, bright pages throughout.