Literature Alexander Rare Books – Literary Firsts & Poetry
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ALEXANDER RARE BOOKS C A T A L O G U E 24 LITERATURE ALEXANDER RARE BOOKS – LITERARY FIRSTS & POETRY Mark Alexander 234 Camp Street Barre, VT 05641 (802) 476-0838 [email protected] Catalogue Twenty-Four: All items are US or UK hardcover First Editions & First Printings unless otherwise stated. All items guaranteed & are refundable for any reason within 30 days. Subject to prior sale. VT residents please add 6% sales tax. Checks, Money orders & Paypal (most credit cards) accepted. Net 30 days. Libraries & institutions billed according to need. Reciprocal terms offered to the trade. SHIPPING IS FREE IN THE US (generally Priority Mail) & CANADA, elsewhere $13 per shipment. Visit AlexanderRareBooks.com for cover scans and photos of most catalogued items. I encourage you to visit my website for the latest acquisitions. I am always interested in acquiring new first editions, single copies & collections, particularly modern & contemporary poetry. Thank you in advance for perusing this catalogue. [Recycled paper used for this catalogue} CATALOGUE TWENTY-FOUR Recent acquisitions: Poetry & Prose 1) Anderson, Chester. FOX & HARE. Glen Ellen, CA: Entwhistle Books, 1980. Illustrated wrappers. Tall 4to; 178 pp. Illustrations by Charles Stevenson from some 800 color slides taken in NYC, from a shooting script derived from the novel. Signed and dated in the year of publication by the author, known for his science fiction. Some wear to the edges, but a tight clean very good copy. (10395) $25.00 2) Baxter, Charles. CHAMELEON. NY: New Rivers Press, 1970. 8vo. Illustrated card wrappers. Signed by Baxter on the title page. Illus. by Mary Minor. First book by the noted novelist and short story writer. A bit of soiling and rubbing to the extremities, slight darkening of the spine, easily very good. One of 500 copies. Because his first novel was a decade away his first two books both poetry are uncommon, especially signed. 87 pp. (10375) $300.00 3) Benet, William Rose (ed.) FIFTY POETS An American Auto-Anthology. NY: Duffield and Green, 1933. Pale green cloth, 8vo. Especially signed by eight of the contributors: Leonora Speyer, Alfred Kreymborg, Louis Untermeyer, John Hall Wheelock, Marianne Moore, Mark Van Doren, Babette Deutsch and Louise Bogan. Benet chose those poets he felt to be the best fifty alive and asked them to choose one "briefer" poem which they would want to be remembered for by "posterity". The editor's brief note about the poet, then poet's comments precede the poem in each case. Of the eight who have signed this copy, Deutsch at a later date (1965) takes exception to her choice; Wheelock makes a brief comment and makes a one word correction; Moore's poem actually chosen by e e cummings who declined to participate, but suggested Ms Moore's poem "A Grave" was his favorite. A good selection of poets: Frost, Stevens, Lola Ridge, Eliot, Jeffers etc., and the comments are quite interesting. An unique copy of an interesting anthology. Some wear to tips and extremities, minor soiling, else very good; lacking the dust jacket. (10373) $250.00 4) Berrigan, Ted. "MOTHER" n. p. : not published, 1976. Sixteen line poem in Berrigan's hand on Desoto Hotel, Galena IL, 6 x 9 in. stationary, dated 10/31/76, entitled "Mother"; beginning "Ah, I can lay down and/ cry myself to sleep..../" and ending "I just want to be your sun" (with a word before "sun" crossed out). Some creasing, a few ink stains, minor stains on verso, else very good. First line and title not in COLLECTED POEMS. (10352) $2,000.00 [See back cover] 5) Berrigan, Ted (ed.); Lorenz Gude (pub.). "C" A JOURNAL OF POETRY; Vol 1, No. 4. NY: self-published, 1963. Issue devoted to Edwin Denby with many poems by him; O'Hara's essay reprinted from POETRY, and a poem by him entitled "Edwin's Hand"; work by Berrigan and John Wieners. Long legal-sized paper mimeo-copied on rectos only. Unpaginated [23 pp.] An incomplete copy, with the original (and very desirable) Warhol cover replaced by the cover from vol. 9 which reads "Cover Design by Joe Brainard" (a hard to explain oddity). Back cover held by one of three staples, edgewear, moderate toning, else about very good. Scarce (one is tempted to say unique with the Brainard cover). Priced accordingly. (10353) $75.00 6) Brautigan, Richard; John Ciardi (Letters). TLs Richard Brautigan to John Ciardi. San Francisco: n.p., August 4, 1965. Typed letter, signed (TLs) by Richard Brautigan to John Ciardi asking him "to vouch" for him for a Guggenheim fellowship. Ciardi was then at THE SATURDAY REVIEW; Brautigan in the letter of twelve lines notes that "I have written a novel called Trout Fishing in America that Grove Press will publish someday". Accompanied by two short letters (copies, unsigned on onion skin) from the generous Ciardi one answering Brautigan""Yes, I shall be happy to say what I can ...especially if I can locate a copy of "Trout..."; and another to Grove publisher Barney Rosset requesting a copy of the book: "the fact that he's written some poems is no evidence in itself that he can write a novel". All three folded for mailing with two sets of staple holes, else fine. Ciardi had kind words for Brautigan's only previous regularly published book THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL FROM BIG SUR, so it is not surprising that Brautigan wrote to him. TROUT FISHING was actually Brautigan's first book, but Grove considered the second book he wrote to be more "traditional". It was, didn't sell well, and Grove declined to publish TROUT, as well as two other books. TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA was not published until the Fall of 1967, more than two years after this letter, in an edition of only 2000. Published first by a small press, it was reprinted many times, and would make him famous. One of the pivotal books of the late 60's countercultural movement. I find no record of the younger poet receiving the fellowship. For the three letters, one signed by Brautigan. (10374) $1,500.00 7) Bukowski, Charles, et al.; Malone, Marvin (ed.) THE WORMWOOD REVIEW Nos. 18-24. Storrs, CT: Wormwood, 1965 - 1966. Stapled wrappers. Seven consecutive issues. Besides Buk's work (including one issue with a center section on colored paper) in all but one present issue, poems by Douglas Blazek, John Sinclair, Gerard Malanga, William Heyen, Walter Lowenfels, and many others. 600 numbered copies originally issued, but now scarce. Yapped edge creased, spines lightly faded, else very good. For the set of seven issues. One of the first and most important little mags to publish Bukowski. (10360) $300.00 8) Cannon, Carl L. AMERICAN BOOK COLLECTORS And COLLECTING: From Colonial Times to the Present. NY: H. W. Wilson, 1941. 8vo. 391 pp. Original red cloth, red topstain. All the great names: Prince, Thomas, Carter Brown, Jefferson, Ticknor, Widener, Morgan...; as well as the specialties: Modern, Americana, Far West, Shakespeare, etc. Attractive bookplate of Eugene Clauss; spine faded, else about fine. (10401) $25.00 9) Carolyn Kizer. DANGEROUS GAMES. n. p. : [Rook Press], 1975. Poetry broadside (8 1/2 x 11 in.) Distributed free at the International Poetry Forum, 1975, in Pittsburgh. Holograph poem including signature reproduced on attractive paper. Fine. (10407) $20.00 10) Carver, Raymond. AT NIGHT THE SALMON MOVE. Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1976. Blue illustrated wrappers. 44 pp. The author's third collection of poetry. Designed by Noel Young, printed by Graham Macintosh and Young. One of 1000 copies (an additional were 100 handbound). Spine sunned else fine. (10335) $195.00 11) Carver, Raymond. WINTER INSOMNIA. Santa Cruz: Kayak Press, 1970. Illustrated wrappers. 56 pp. The author's second collection of poems; one of a thousand copies printed. Illustrated by Robert McChesney. Very near fine copy, with truly light wear (interior unmarked, tight; no fading). (10337) $150.00 12) Crawford, John (ed.). WEST END: A Volume of Poetry & Politics. Bronx, NY: 1971 - 1975. Stapled illustrated wrappers. Five issues in all: Vol. 1, no. 1 & 2; vol. 2, no. 3; Vol, 3, no. 2 & 4. Interview with Allen Ginsberg, poems by Mary Oppen, Denise Levertov, Larry Eigner, Lyn Lifshin, and others. Some prose, mostly poetry. Crawford was a professor at Lehman College. One with a library received stamp, else very good. For the set of five. (10361) $35.00 13) Crone, Richard. HIPPY HI. San Francisco: Crone, 1967. Slightly oblong in stapled illustrated wrappers. 35 images of late 60's counter culture. Staples tarnished, else near fine and surprisingly uncommon. (10396) $40.00 14) Dylan, Bob. POEM TO JOANIE. N.P. [UK]: Booklegger, after 1971. Reissue. A 20-page pamphlet in stapled, brown paper wrappers. Originally printed as liner notes to Joan Baez in Concert Part 2. Printed in several colors with illustrations of Dylan differing from the earlier edition. The intro. by A. J. Weberman. Minor crease, prev. owner's name on back inside cover; easily very good. One of the most literal and open pieces Dylan has written. He describes how he never looked to the beauty, but saw the ugliness in the railroad tracks at home, and grime in the streets of NYC until he heard her voice: "Which shattered all the rules I owned/An left me puzzled without no choice/ Cept t listen t her voice". (10338) $75.00 15) Elmslie, Kenward. ZZ. Calais, VT: Z Press, 1974. Cover by Ron Padgett, poetry and or prose by Bruce Andrews, John Ashbery, Russell Banks, Glen Baxter (cartoons), Clark Coolidge, Elmslie, Larry Fagin, Barbara Guest, Valery Larbaud, Harry Mathews, P. Oldenberg, Maureen Owen, Padgett, Jarold Ramsey, James Schuyler, Lew Warsh and Bill Zavatsky.