BOSTON INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR
HYNES CONVENTION CENTER, NOVEMBER 12 – 14, 2010
A Selection of Fine, Rare and Important Books from Our Stock (including some new arrivals and some books we just like a lot)
JAMES S. JAFFE RARE BOOKS
790 Madison Ave, Suite 605 New York, New York 10065 Tel 212-988-8042 Fax 212-988-8044 Cell: 610-637-3531 (during the fair) Email: [email protected] Please visit our website: www.jamesjaffe.com
Member Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America / International League of Antiquarian Booksellers
1. [ABATTOIR EDITIONS] RILKE, Rainer Maria. Holding Out. Poems Rendered from the German of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rika Lesser with a Note by Richard Howard. 4to, original natural linen with printed label on spine. Omaha, NE.: Abattoir Editions / University of Nebraska at Omaha. 1975. First edition. Limited to 225 copies printed in Bembo type on Grand Moghul handmade paper from India. Very fine copy, in a custom-made chemise and slipcase. $500.00
2. AGEE, James. The Morning Watch. 8vo, original printed wrappers, glassine dust jacket. Roma: Botteghe Oscure VI, 1950. First (separate) edition of Agee’s autobiographical first novel, printed for private circulation in its entirety. One of an unrecorded number of off-prints from Marguerite Caetani’s distinguished literary journal Botteghe Oscure. Agee’s novella was not published in book form until 1951 when Houghton Mifflin brought it out in the United States. A fine copy. Scarce. $1500.00
3. [ANVIL PRESS] RACINE, Jean. Andromache: A Tragedy, Freely Translated into English in 1674 from Jean Racine’s ‘Andromaque’ by a Young Gentleman & John Crowne. With a Foreword by Desmond Flower and Illustrations by Fritz Kredel. 4to, original cloth-backed boards with printed spine label, dust jacket. Lexington, KY.: Anvil Press, 1986. Limited to 100 numbered copies printed by Carolyn Hammer and W. Gay Reading at the Anvil Press in Victor Hammer’s American and Andromaque Uncial types. A very fine copy of a beautiful book, in a custom-made slipcase. $850.00
4. ASHBERY, John & James SCHUYLER. A Nest of Ninnies. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. N. Y.: E. P. Dutton, 1969. First edition of this collaborative novel. Signed by Ashbery. Fine copy in lightly dust-soiled jacket with one short closed tear. $450.00
5. AUDEN, W. H. Poems. 8vo, original pale blue printed wrappers. London: Faber, (1930). First edition of Auden’s first regularly published book. One of 1000 copies printed. Bloomfield & Mendelson A2a. Apart from a hairline split about an inch long at the base of the spine along the rear outer hinge and a minute amount of wear at the corners, a very fine clean copy – one of the finest copies we have seen – with the publisher’s advertisement flyer laid in. $2500.00
6. [AUDUBON, John James] BURROUGHS, Franklin. Passion or Conquest. 8vo, illustrated in color, original green boards, dust jacket. (Haverford, PA): Green Shade, 2001. First edition of this long essay on John James Audubon by the author of Billy Watson’s Croker Sack. One of 100 numbered copies printed by the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy and signed by the author. As new, at publication price. $150.00
7. AUSTER, Paul. Autobiography of the Eye. 8vo, photographic frontispiece by Karin Welch tipped- in, original string-tied French-fold unprinted wrappers, printed paper label, publisher’s envelope. (Portland: Printed at The Beaverdam Press for Charles Seluzicki, 1993). First edition of this poem. One of thirty-five copies printed (the entire edition). Fine copy. Rare. $850.00
8. BECKETT, Samuel. Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates. Small thin 4to, original printed buff wrappers. Paris: Europa Press, 1935. First edition of Beckett’s second book of poetry. Although not called for, this copy is signed by Beckett in a bold contemporary hand on the title-page, and numbered “28” by hand on the colophon page, suggesting that it is a special copy, since the numbers on the colophon page of the ordinary edition on Alfa paper were ink-stamped. A very fine copy, rare signed. $7500.00
9. BECKETT, Samuel. Echo’s Bones and Other Precipitates. Small thin 4to, original printed buff wrappers. Paris: Europa Press, 1935. First edition of Beckett’s second book of poetry. One of the ordinary issue of 250 numbered copies printed on Alfa paper, with the number ink-stamped on the colophon page. Buff wrappers very slightly toned as often, otherwise a very fine copy. $2500.00
10. BERRIGAN, Ted. So Going Around Cities: New & Selected Poems 1958-1979. Large 8vo, original red cloth, publisher’s brown cloth slipcase. Berkeley: Blue Wind Press, 1980. First edition, limited issue. One of only 75 copies signed and numbered by Berrigan on the half-title page. Fischer p. 55. In his memorial tribute to Berrigan, Kenneth Koch wrote: “I knew, for the first time, how good he was when I read “Tambourine Life.” I loved (love) that poem. It seemed in a way ahead of everything – absolutely casual, ordinary, and momentary-seeming, without joking, mystery, or false dazzle, and full of buoyancy, sweetness, and high spirits.” Spine very slightly faded, otherwise a fine copy. $850.00
11. BERRYMAN, John. Stephen Crane. The American Men of Letters Series. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. (New York): William Sloane Associates, (1950). First edition. Stefanik A6.I.a. An important association copy, inscribed by Berryman to his teacher Mark Van Doren on the front free- endpaper: “Mark & Dorothy with love / Crane’s relation w. [Hamlin] Garland tells me something about mine with you. Rebellion & guilt [underlined] suffocating the gratitude. Will you forgive me ever & can we meet? This is better by the way than when you saw it but still lousy. Don’t read it. I hope to do something pleasant yet. / John / 14 Nov 50”. Van Doren was Berryman’s professor at Columbia University, where Berryman attended college and where he began publishing poems in the Columbia Review. In September 1945, Van Doren gave Berryman his own set of Wilson Follett’s twelve-volume edition of The Works of Stephen Crane. One of Berryman’s most important influences, and a life-long friend, Van Doren was also a general editor of, as well as a contributing author to, The American Men of Letters Series, and he commissioned Berryman to write this critical study of Crane, a psychological study some scholars believe tells more about its author than its subject. Berryman’s inscription to Van Doren enhances this insight. A fine copy, the dust jacket of which has been neatly reinforced on the verso at a couple of places along the flap folds. $5000.00
12. BERRYMAN, John. National Book Award in Poetry 1969 Acceptance Speech 3/12/69. 1 page, 4to, mimeographed. N. Y.: National Book Awards, 1969. Berryman’s Acceptance Speech for the National Book Award in Poetry which he received for His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (N. Y.: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1968). A brilliant statement of poetic purpose, independence, and vindication: “Both the writer and the reader of long poems need gall, the outrageous, the intolerable – and they need it again and again. The prospect of ignominious failure must haunt them continually. Whitman, our greatest poet, had all this. Eliot, next, perhaps even greater than Whitman, had it too. Pound makes a marvelous if frail third here. All three dazzlingly original, you notice, and very hostile, both Pound and Eliot, to Whitman. It is no good looking for models. We want anti-models.” National Book Award speeches of this and earlier vintages were printed for the occasion, and in our experience, seldom survive. Very fine copy. Rare. $450.00
13. BISHOP, Elizabeth. The Complete Poems. 8vo, original blue cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Farrar Straus & Giroux, (1969). First edition, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. One of 5500 copies printed. MacMahon A9. Signed by Bishop on the title-page. Fine copy in a slightly sunned jacket with a spot of soiling on front panel. $2500.00
14. BOGAN, Louise. The Blue Estuaries. Poems: 1923-68. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, (1968). First edition of this overview of Bogan’s career, effectively her collected poems. Presentation copy, inscribed by the poet on the title page: “For Phyllis Armstrong, Louise Bogan, 18 November 1968”. With the author’s complimentary card laid in. The recipient was the assistant to the Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, the position that has since become known as the Poet Laureate, a position Bogan held in 1945. Small rust mark from paperclip on half- title page, otherwise a fine copy. $450.00
15. BURROUGHS, William S. The Cat Inside. Drawings By Brion Gysin. 4to, illustrations, original quarter vellum and Sage Reynolds’ hand-painted paper over boards, without dust jacket as issued. N.Y.: The Grenfell Press, 1986. First edition and one of the author’s most affecting essays. One of 115 numbered copies, signed by Burroughs and Gysin, out of a total edition of 133 copies. A beautiful book, the last collaboration between Burroughs and Gysin, signed by the artist just before he died – the signature is not, as some have assumed, a facsimile. As new. $2500.00
16. CAPOTE, Truman. Local Color. 8vo, illustrated with photographs with photographs by Cecil Beaton, Cartier-Bresson, Hoynigen-Huene, Alexander Liberman and others, original cloth and paper over boards, dust jacket. N. Y.: Random House, (1950). First edition, a Review Copy with slip laid in, of Capote’s impressions of New Orleans, Hollywood, Tangiers and New York, among other places. Very slightly cocked, otherwise a very fine, bright copy with none of the usual discoloration to the white portions of the dust jacket. $1500.00
17. CHATWIN, Bruce. In Patagonia. 8vo, illustrated, original boards, dust jacket. London: Jonathan Cape, (1977). First edition of Chatwin’s first book which won the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M. Forster Award. Fine copy. $875.00
18. CLIFTON, Lucille. Ten Oxherding Pictures. 4to, original quarter calf & boards, glassine dust jacket. Santa Cruz, CA: Moving Parts Press, 1988. First edition. One of 30 specially bound copies signed by Clifton. Very fine copy. $850.00
19. CRANE, Hart. The Bridge. A Poem. With Three Photographs by Walker Evans. 4to, original white printed wrappers, original glassine, in publisher’s silver-gilt paper covered slipcase. Paris: Black Sun Press, 1930. First edition of Crane’s masterpiece. One of 200 numbered copies printed on Holland Paper. Schwartz & Schweik A2. Minkoff A32. Connolly 100, 64. One of the seminal American poems of the Twentieth Century, about which Harold Bloom has noted: “what is imperishable in The Bridge is not its lyric mourning, but its astonishing transformation of the sublime ode into an American epic, uneven certainly but beyond The Waste Land in aspiration and accomplishment.” – Introduction to The Complete Poems of Hart Crane (N. Y.: Liveright, 2000). In 1928, Crane and Evans met for the first time under Brooklyn Bridge, “Evans with his vest-pocket camera and Crane with his notebook. They recognized each other as kindred spirits and fell naturally into conversation. Crane was fascinated by photography. . . .” After first considering a reproduction of Joseph Stella’s cubist painting of the Brooklyn Bridge to illustrate his poem, Crane decided that he “wanted to use three of Evans’ photographs of the bridge as separate plates within the text.” Evans’s photographs were published for the first time in The Bridge, and since then have become identified not only with Crane’s poem, but with the Brooklyn Bridge itself, in the artistic and literary imagination. – Belinda Rathbone, Walker Evans. A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), pp. 41-52. Slipcase slightly worn and splitting, with a few scratches, light off-setting to the front end-papers, and with the usual discoloration to the covers where the book is pulled out of the slipcase, otherwise a very good copy of an increasingly rare book. $10,000.00
20. [CUMMINGS, E. E.] FIRMAGE, George J. E.E. Cummings: A Bibliography. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, (1960). First edition. Cummings’s own copy, with the compiler’s presentation inscription on the front free endpaper: “For E.E. and Marion Cummings, whose ‘giving’ made this possible, this first copy of a ‘valentine’ to my ‘now-hero’. With thanks and love, George Firmage 3/12/60”. Fine copy. $750.00
21. [CUMMINGTON PRESS] TATE, Allen. The Hovering Fly and Other Essays. 8vo, illustrated with woodcuts by Wightman Williams, full russet morocco with inlaid hand-colored panel on the front cover by Arno Werner. (Cummington, MA): Cummington Press, 1949. First edition of the finest of all of Harry Duncan’s Cummington Press books, with Wightman Williams’s stunning portrait of Tate on the title-page. One of only 12 copies on Van Gelder paper, with an original drawing by Wightman Williams, and with the woodcuts hand-colored by the artist, and signed by Tate and Wightman Williams on the colophon page, out of a total edition of 245 copies; this copy in a unique binding by Arno Werner, the binder for the edition. Werner’s own copy, signed by him on the colophon: “Arno Werner, Bookbinder, 1949”, and preserved in a custom-made half-morocco folding box by Werner, with his book-label inside. The regular binding for this hand-colored issue was plain parchment/vellum. A very fine copy of one of the most beautiful modern American private press books, and only the second hand-colored copy we have heard of on the market in twenty-five years. $15,000.00
22. [DAVENPORT, Guy, translator] HERAKLEITOS. (The Fragments. In The Original Greek. Translated by Guy Davenport). Tall thin 4to, original paste-paper boards. Berkeley, CA: Peter Rutledge Koch, 1991. First edition of Davenport’s translation of the 124 extant fragments of the pre- Socratic philosopher, printed in Greek with English translation. One of 100 copies printed on Nideggen paper (out of a total edition of 111 copies) and signed and dated by Davenport. A bilingual edition, with facing Greek and English texts, the Greek text is set in Monotype Gill, the English translation in Bembo. Accompanied by a separate pamphlet with the translator’s and typesetter’s notes, which were not printed in the book. A very fine copy, in a custom-made box. $750.00
23. DUNCAN, Robert. Autograph Letter Signed, 1 page, square 4to, July 17, 1960, to painter Fran Herndon, a friend of both Duncan’s and Jess’, about visiting plans, “I’d talked to Jack and suggested this coming week-end for you to come out to visit; but the plans have altered. I hadn’t set it with Jess, and Robin and Don Allen are coming that weekend. We can’t manage more than one round of friends a weekend” and commenting upon work in-hand: “If Jess should be in the thick of collaging - as he is this weekend, we can go to the beach, pickwick style. This week I can hardly get him to come to table. I’m trying to root out angel-lore, still stalking around and around the ‘material’ for the book, or trying the water apprehensively: with no courage to commit a paragraph.” Folded from mailing otherwise the letter is in fine condition. $1000.00
24. ELIOT, T. S. Marina. With Drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer. Thin 8vo, original blue-gray boards. London: Faber and Faber, 1930. First edition, large-paper issue, limited to 400 copies printed on English hand-made paper and signed by Eliot. Gallup A17b. Boards very slightly rubbed, otherwise an unusually fine copy. $1000.00
25. ELIOT, T. S. Old Possum’s Book Of Practical Cats. 8vo, original pictorial yellow cloth stamped in red, dust jacket. London: Faber & Faber, (1939). First edition of Eliot’s most endearing work. One of 3005 copies printed. Gallup A34a. Very slight toning to the bright yellow dust jacket, which is price-clipped, otherwise a fine copy, in a half-morocco folding box. $2500.00
26. ELIOT, T. S. (Four Quartets). East Coker. Burnt Norton. The Dry Salvages. Little Gidding. 4 volumes, thin 8vo, original printed wrappers. London: Faber & Faber, (1940-1942). First editions of the separate publications of Eliot’s Four Quartets. Gallup A36c, A37, A39 & A42. Although the three later sections are not particularly uncommon, East Coker is scarce in the first edition. Wrappers very slightly soiled, otherwise a fine set, far superior to the usual. $2250.00
27. [FINIAL PRESS] JOHNSON, Ronald. 3 Concrete Poems. Balloons For Moonless Nights / arrows like S’s / GsAeRcDrEeNtS. Folio, seventeen original 14” x 14” prints on various colored mat boards silkscreened from hand-cut film by Alvin Doyle Moore, accompanied by a 7 1/2” x 7 1/2” book printed in three colors and bound in original red Kennet cloth over boards stamped in silver on the front cover, all loose, as issued, in the publisher’s cloth and paste-paper over boards folding box with a printed paper label on the top panel. (Urbana, IL: The Finial Press, 1968). First (and only) edition. One of 20 numbered copies signed by Johnson (the entire edition). This is Johnson’s own copy, copy #1. The [12] pp book illustrates the correct layout scheme for the three poems and includes an essay, “The Round Earth on Flat Paper”, by the poet. Very fine copy. Rare. $6000.00
28. FROST, Robert. Mountain Interval. 8vo, original blue cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Henry Holt & Co., (1916). First edition of Frost’s third book, first issue with errors on pp. 88 & 93. One of 4000 copies in the edition. Crane A4. Signed by Frost on the title-page, and with his holograph correction to the error on p. 88. Frost has crossed out the line that was mistakenly repeated: “You’re further under in the snow – that’s all” and in the margin has written “sounds further off, it’s not because it’s dying / RF” so that the passage correctly reads: “If you think the wind / sounds further off, it’s not because it’s dying.” The error on p. 93 has not been corrected as the pages remain unopened. Mountain Interval was Frost’s first book to be published originally in the United States, his two earlier titles having first appeared in England. Mountain Interval contains the first appearance of what is perhaps Frost’s best-known poem, “The Road Not Taken”. A splendid copy, virtually new in dust jacket. $12,500.00
29. FROST, Robert. New Hampshire. A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes. Woodcuts by J. J. Lankes. Large 8vo, original gilt-decorated black cloth, t.e.g. N. Y.: Henry Holt & Co., 1923. First edition. One of 350 numbered copies signed by Frost. Crane A6. New Hampshire contains the first appearance of one of Frost’s most famous poems, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. Small ink signature stamp on front pastedown, tiny bookseller’s label on back pastedown, otherwise a fine bright copy, lacking the fragile card slipcase. $2250.00
30. FROST, Robert. West-Running Brook. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards with pictorial label on the front cover. N. Y.: Henry Holt, (1928). First edition, presumed first state without the words “First edition” on the copyright page. Crane A10. An intriguing association copy, inscribed on the title- page: “For Theodore Roethke / Robert Frost, Ann Arbor 1930.” In 1930, Theodore Roethke was a twenty-two year old graduate student in the English Department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Frost was on a reading tour of the west, and evidently stopped at the University of Michigan, where he had been Poet in Residence in 1921. In later years, Frost and Roethke met several times, often at Breadloaf, the School for Creative Writing run by Middlebury College in Vermont. In 1962, when Roethke received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, of which Frost was then honorary president, Roethke toasted Frost with the following verse: “I like New England men / Their women now and then / Of poets they’ve the most / But mostly Robert Frost.” Coincidentally, both Roethke and Frost received honorary doctorates from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor later in 1962. The poets had lunch together, and as Allan Seager, Roethke’s biographer, records: “Ted, who had long since lost his respect for Frost as a poet, saying that his New England was a mere literary convention, had kept his respect for Frost, the ancient oracle, and he did not try to shine.” Both poets died the next year, Frost in January at the age of 89, Roethke in August at 55. Lacking the dust jacket, very slight wear at corners of the covers, otherwise a very good copy. $4750.00
31. FROST, Robert. Collected Poems. Tall 8vo, original buckram with leather label on spine, t.e.g. N.Y.: Random House, 1930. First edition of the first of Frost’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collections. Limited to 1000 copies printed at the Spiral Press and signed by Frost. Some slight discoloration along outer hinges, offsetting to endpapers as usual, otherwise an unusually fine unopened copy of this handsome edition. $2000.00
32. FROST, Robert. Three Poems. 4to, original pale blue wrappers with printed label on front cover. Hanover, N. H.: Dartmouth College, Baker Library Press, (1935). First edition. Limited to 125 numbered copies printed by hand in Caslon Oldstyle on Worthy Hand and Arrows paper for the Daniel Oliver Associates of Dartmouth College. None of the copies in the edition were for sale. Crane A18. Presentation copy, inscribed by Frost on the first leaf: “To C(harles). C. Auchincloss, these my first written but last printed, Robert Frost.” The three early poems printed here are “The Quest of the Orchis” (circa 1901), “Warning” (Circa 1895), and “Caesar’s Lost Transport Ships” (Circa 1892). A very fine copy, preserved in a green half-morocco slipcase. $3000.00
33. [GEHENNA PRESS] BASKIN, Leonard. Birds and Animals. Square 4to, 65 original wood engravings, full red pigskin with gilt cat profile on the front cover by Arno Werner. (No place): The Gehenna Press, (1972-1974). Unique copy, specially bound by Arno Werner, one of the binders of the edition, with his pencil annotation on a preliminary leaf: “This is printed right by Harold McGrath; bound right by Arno Werner.” Of the regular edition of Birds and Animals which was published in 1974, the bibliography notes: “Two earlier editions of the book were printed, the first in 1972, the second earlier in 1974. These editions each consisted of only a few copies, similar in format to this one, but with varying numbers of prints. Both editions were bound by Arno Werner.” In the published edition of the book, the prints appear on rectos only; in this copy, clearly one of the rare earlier versions, the prints are bound French fold; and the colophon, such as it is, merely states: “Printed at the Gehenna Press.” – The Gehenna Press, The Work of Fifty Years 77. The binder’s own copy, with his bookplate on the front end-sheet. A very fine copy, in a beautiful and characteristic Arno Werner binding, in a half-morocco folding box. $7500.00
34. [GEHENNA PRESS] HUGHES, Ted. Howls And Whispers. Small 4to, illustrated with eleven original etchings by Leonard Baskin, original full red & black leather with black leather label on the spine and on the front cover, in cloth folding box, by Claudia Cohen. (Hadley, MA): The Gehenna Press, 1998. First edition of these eleven poems which were withheld from the publication of Hughes’ Birthday Letters, poems addressed to Sylvia Plath. One of 10 deluxe copies, with three watercolors by Baskin, a second suite of the etchings, one copperplate and a leaf of the corrected manuscript of Hughes’ poem “The Hidden Orestes”, out of a total edition of 110 copies printed by hand in Centaur types on Italian handmade paper signed by Hughes and Baskin. In addition, the present copy contains three extra watercolors by Baskin, and a suite of twenty signed proof etchings. With the unexpected publication of Birthday Letters, Hughes broke a thirty-five year long silence on the subject of his late wife, shocking some partisans, but winning many new admirers for his poetry. The eleven poems in Howls & Whispers are published here for the first time. A very fine copy of this gorgeous book, one of Hughes’ and Baskin’s most important collaborations. $22,500.00
35. GINSBERG, Allen. Howl. Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, With Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography. Edited by Barry Miles. 4to, illustrated, original cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Harper & Row, (1986). First edition, trade issue. Presentation copy, inscribed by Ginsberg to Don Allen on the verso of the half-title page: “For Don Allen with old affection respect & nostalgia. Allen Ginsberg New York February 3, 1987”. Ginsberg has added to the inscription the capital letters “AH” within a circle. Fine copy. $1250.00
36. GLÜCK, Louise. Firstborn. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. (N. Y.): New American Library, (1968). First edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet’s scarce first book. The white dust jacket is faintly discolored, with a touch of rubbing at the head of the spine, otherwise a fine copy. $750.00
37. [GOGMAGOG PRESS] COX, Morris. An Impression of Winter: A Landscape Panorama, An Impression of Spring: A Landscape Panorama, An Impression of Summer: A Landscape Panorama, & An Impression of Autumn: A Landscape Panorama. 4 volumes, each volume illustrated with 3 embossed reverse/direct offset prints joined in continuous strip. London: Gogmagog Press, 1966. First editions. Each volume is limited to 100 copies printed on Japanese Hosho paper, numbered and signed by Morris Cox. Chambers 14, 15, 16, & 17. A very fine set of what is generally regarded as one of the artist’s masterpieces, with prospectuses laid in. $4000.00
38. [GOGMAGOG PRESS] COX, Morris. The Curtain. Illustrated with 10 double-page reverse- offset prints. 8vo, original black cloth boards with white stripes, acetate dust jacket. London: Gogmagog Press, 1960. Chambers 5. One of 26 copies numbered and signed in ink by the author/artist. Roderick Cave called this “the most completely satisfying of all the Gogmagog books.” – The Private Press. Very fine copy. $1750.00
39. HALL, Donald. Kicking the Leaves. A Poem in Seven Parts with a Colophonic Boxwood Engraving by Reynolds Stone. Thin oblong 12mo, original wrappers. Mt. Horeb, WI: Perishable Press, (1976). First edition of one of the poet’s most important poems, which is in seven parts, with each part marked with a word/number in a progressively darkening red. One of 125 copies (the entire edition) signed by Hall. Hamady 74. Mint copy. $650.00
40. HARDY, Thomas. Human Shows, Far Phantasies: Songs and Trifles. 8vo, original green cloth, dust jacket. London: Macmillan, 1925. First edition. Purdy pp. 234-48. Signed by Hardy on the title- page. Endpapers foxed, dust jacket slightly worn at head of the spine, otherwise a very good copy. $3500.00
41. HEANEY, Seamus. Ugolino. 4to, illustrated with 2 lithographs by Louis Le Brocquy, original limp black goatskin, publisher’s slipcase. Dublin: Andrew Carpenter, 1979. First edition. Limited to 125 copies printed, signed by the poet, the artist, and the designer and publisher, Andrew Carpenter. Only 30 copies were for sale. Brandes A19. Fine copy of one of Heaney’s rarest books. $12,500.00
42. HESSE, Hermann. Zwei Gedichte. 12mo, original stapled printed wrappers. Np: Privately printed, 1951. First edition. Wallace Stevens’s copy, inscribed by Hesse on the inside front wrapper, “Herzlich grüsst [Best regards] / H Hesse”, with the original mailing envelope addressed to Stevens in Hesse’s hand . A very fine copy. $2750.00
43. HUGHES, Langston. The Weary Blues. With An Introduction By Carl Van Vechten. Small 8vo, original blue cloth-backed decorated boards, pictorial dust jacket by Covarrubias. N. Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. First edition of Hughes’ first book. One of 1500 copies printed. Dickinson 1. Advance copy, with the publisher’s review slip, giving the publication date, laid in. One of the cornerstones of the Harlem Renaissance, The Weary Blues includes Hughes’ important sequence of poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, in addition to the poems inspired by the “blues”. Carl Van Vechten, the flamboyant gay novelist, photographer, and impresario, was almost single-handedly responsible for producing Hughes’ book: Van Vechten befriended the poet, solicited the manuscript, secured the publisher, designed the book, commissioned Covarrubias to illustrate the dust jacket, and wrote the introduction. Despite criticism from members of the Harlem community, Hughes regarded Van Vechten as his “good angel” and remained grateful to the friend who had helped launch his career. Extremities of boards slightly rubbed, former ownership signature of “Juliette Sessions” on the front end-paper, otherwise a fine copy in lightly chipped dust jacket, which is faintly darkened along the spine. The first edition of The Weary Blues is extremely rare in dust jacket. $25,000.00
44. HUGHES, Ted. A Primer of Birds. Woodcuts by Leonard Baskin. . Tall 8vo, original quarter green morocco & marbled boards. (Lurley in Devon): Gehenna Press, 1981. First edition, deluxe issue. One of 25 roman-numeraled copies signed by Hughes & Baskin with an additional suite of the six woodcuts printed on Japanese paper, signed & numbered by the artist, bound in at the back, out of a total edition of 250 copies printed on handmade paper Very fine copy. $3000.00
45. [JANUS PRESS] VAN VLIET, Claire, artist. A Country Doctor. By Franz Kafka. Fourteen Relief Etchings. Fourteen original relief etchings, sheet size 16 x 12 inches, in publisher’s cloth portfolio. Philadelphia, PA: Janus Press, 1962. First (only) edition of this portfolio of etchings, printed in black at the Philadelphia College of Art on Rives cuve velin BFK 230 gram paper by Claire Van Vliet and Ruth Fine Lehrer. Limited to 20 copies, with each print numbered and signed by the artist. Twelve of the images were included in the Janus Press book of the same title, but two appear only in this suite. Rare. $7500.00
46. [JANUS PRESS] CARRUTH, Hayden. Aura. A Poem by Hayden Carruth with a paperwork by Claire Van Vliet and Kathryn and Howard Clark made at Twinrocker Handmade Paper Mill in Brookston, Indiana in December of 1976. Tall folio, in printed handmade paper folder, enclosed in linen folding box with printed paper label on the spine. (West Burke, Vermont: The Janus Press, 1977). First edition. Limited to only 50 copies. A “Folded paperwork landscape by CVV and Kathryn and Howard Clark enclosed in a folded paper wrapper on which the text is printed; unfolded wrapper measures 14 3/4 x 30 inches: front and back panels measure 14 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches; text flaps measure 14 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches; there is a 1/2 inch spine; unfolded paperwork measures 15 x 47 inches: it is folded in half and each half is accordion-folded into three panels – the two central panels measure 15 x 8 inches; the four outer panels measure 15 x 7 3/4 inches. Edition of 50 unsigned, press numbered copies. Titles in 12 and 20 pt. Diotima; text in 12 pt. Titles and text printed in salmon red. Printed on Twinrocker Jute. Paperwork illustration made from 12 variously colored pulps: reds, oranges, blues, violets. Housed in a clam box covered and lined with natural linen with sides of dull red-orange Seta cloth. Author/title label on spine printed in red on Twinrocker Jute mounted on red-orange paper made by CVV at Twinrocker. Designed by Howard Clark and CVV; set and printed by CVV; boxes by JB. Paperwork was made at Twinrocker, Brookston, Indiana, with the assistance of Susan Hostetler and Bill Hodson. Published with grant assistance from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., a federal agency.” “JB” is Jim Bicknell. – Fine, Ruth E. The Janus Press 1975-80 Catalogue Raisonné . . . An Exhibition at The Robert Hull Fleming Museum at The University of Vermont in Burlington, 1982, p.39. A very fine copy of one of the rarest books of the Janus Press, as well as Carruth’s rarest book, the only copy that we have encountered in twenty-five years. $4500.00
47. [JANUS PRESS] FINNEY, Charles G. The Circus of Dr. Lao. With Relief Etchings by Claire Van Vliet. Large thick 4to, illustrated with relief etchings and pochoir prints by Claire Van Vliet, vellum-backed decorated cloth, in folding cloth box. Vermont: Janus Press, 1984. First limited signed edition of Finney’s first book, a classic of fantasy literature which was originally published in 1935. Limited to 150 numbered copies printed letterpress on handmade Barcham Green paper and signed by Finney and Claire Van Vliet. Grolier Club, A Century For The Century: Fine Printed Books From 1900 To 1999, 93. A sumptuous work of art and Van Vliet’s masterpiece, The Circus of Dr. Lao is one of the finest modern American private press books. A fine copy. $5000.00
48. [JANUS PRESS] Herball, from The Dialogues Of Creatures Moralised. Appliable and edifying to every merry and jocund matter, & right profitable to the governance of men. First printed in latin by Gerard Leeu in Gouda in 1480 & in english in 1535. Eleven dialogues illustrated with woodcuts by Helen Siegl. 4to, illustrated with hand-colored woodcuts, original cloth, printed paper spine label. West Burke, VT: The Janus Press, 1979. First edition. One of 150 numbered copies (the entire edition) printed on Barcham Green deWint paper, signed by Helen Siegl, with the woodcuts hand-colored by the artist. Very fine copy of Siegl’s most beautiful book, and certainly one of the most beautiful books from the Janus Press. Scarce. $1000.00
49. JARRELL, Randall. Poetry and the Age. 8vo, original black cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Knopf, 1953. First edition of Jarrell’s major critical work. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free-endpaper: “To Leonard and Maud Hurley from Randall and Mary Jarrell”. Wright A5a. Hurley was a colleague of Jarrell’s in the English Department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Fine copy in dust jacket that is slightly faded and spotted along the spine panel. $850.00
50. JARRELL, Randall. National Book Award Address, March 14, 1961, 4to, 4 pages, stapled as issued. New York, N.Y.: National Book Awards, 1961. First edition, a mimeograph, for distribution at the awards ceremony. Jarrell won the National Book Award for Poetry for The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Poems and Translations (New York: Atheneum, 1960). “Sometimes I read, in reviews by men whose sleep I have troubled, that I’m one of those poets who’ve never learned to write poetry. This is true . . . It is customary for poets, in conclusion, to recommend poetry to you, and to beg you to read it as much as you ought instead of as much as you do. . . . Poetry doesn’t need poets’ recommendations. . . . Poetry, art . . . I do not recommend them to you any more than I recommend to you that, tonight, you go home to bed, and go to sleep, and dream.” National Book Award speeches of this and earlier vintages were printed for the occasion, and in our experience, seldom survive. A fine copy; ephemeral, and rare. $650.00
51. KAVANAGH, Patrick. Collected Poems. Tall 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964. First trade edition. Jacket slightly rubbed at top of back panel, tiny closed tear near top of spine, otherwise a very fine copy. $750.00
52. KEENS, William. Twenty-Six Poems. 4to, original green cloth with printed label on spine. (No place): Privately Printed, 2009. First edition, privately printed for the author. Limited to 100 numbered copies printed by Michael & Winifred Bixler and signed by the poet, who has also corrected one typo in the text. As new. $100.00
53. KLEIST, Heinrich von. Sul Teatro Delle Marionette (Puppet Theater). A short story in German, with a translation in Italian by Renata Colorni. Illustrated with four etchings by Neil Moore. 4to, original quarter leather & cloth, publisher’s slipcase. Verona: Edizioni Ampersand, (1984). First edition of the first book from the press, with text in German and Italian. Limited to 80 press-numbered copies, designed and printed by Alessandro Zanella, assistant to Richard Gabriel Rummonds at the Plain Wrapper Press in Verona. “When I saw his first book, I was literally moved to tears, partly because of its impeccable beauty, and partly because it was the realization of his early desire to print von Kleist. I think all collectors of limited editions, whether or not they read these languages, will enjoy it for its fine typography and stunning illustrations.” – Richard-Gabriel Rummonds. Very fine copy. $1250.00
54. KOCH, Kenneth. Poems/Prints. Poems by Kenneth Koch. Prints by Nell Blaine. 4to, original illustrated card wrappers, stapled. New York: Editions of The Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 1953. First edition of Koch’s scarce first book, illustrated with four original linoleum cuts by Nell Blaine, who designed the cover, typography and decorations for the book. One of 300 numbered copies (the entire edition). The book was not issued signed by either poet or artist; but in this copy, Nell Blaine has signed and dated each of the three large mounted prints in the bottom margin. In addition to these large prints, there is one small linoleum cut and five black & white illustrations. Although his reputation as a professor at Columbia, indeed, as the most inspired teacher of poetry of his generation (“Kenneth Koch / could teach a golf ball / how to write pantoums” – Schuyler), has tended to overshadow his reputation as a poet, Koch’s poetry deserves a wider audience. As Ashbery assessed it: Koch’s poetry “gives you the impression that you are leading an interesting life: going to parties and meeting interesting people, falling in love, going for rides in the country and to public swimming pools, eating in the best restaurants and going to movies and the theater in the afternoons. By comparison, most other modern poetry makes me feel as if I were living in a small mid-western university town.” – quoted in David Lehman’s The Last Avant-Garde, p. 210. A very fine copy, and rare in such beautiful condition, with none of the offsetting and staining that so often mars this book. $4500.00
55. KUNITZ, Stanley J. Intellectual Things. Small 8vo, original cloth with printed label on the spine, dust jacket. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1930. First edition of Kunitz’s first book. Presentation copy, inscribed many years later to one of his closest friends, the poet Theodore Roethke: “To Ted, whose feelings for these poems helped sustain me – Stanley 1960”. There are a number of pencil marks – checks and brackets – by a number of poems in the book, marks which may be in Roethke’s hand. While a contemporary presentation inscription might be preferred by some, the essence of this inscription, upon which it would be impossible to improve, lies in its touching retrospective simplicity. As Kunitz has written, “The poet of my generation who meant most to me, in his person and his art, was Theodore Roethke. . . . Some seven decades have passed since he blew into my life like the ‘big wind’ of one of his poems. . . . Only a few of his poems had yet appeared in print. . . . He had come to talk about poetry, and talk we did, over a jug, grandly and vehemently all through the night. There were occasions in the years that followed when I could swear that I hadn’t been to bed since we first met.” It was Kunitz who christened Roethke’s first book, Open House; and some years later, when Roethke was being asked to leave Bennington owing to manic-depression, he refused to leave unless Kunitz was hired to take his place on the faculty. Kunitz devoted one of his last evenings at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, which he helped to found, wholly to Roethke. A few very short closed tears in the jacket, some light foxing, otherwise a fine copy. $3500.00
56. KUNITZ, Stanley. The Coat Without a Seam. Sixty Poems 1930-1972. 4to, title-page portrait by Leonard Baskin, original quarter vellum and paper over boards. (Northampton, MA: The Gehenna Press, 1974). First edition, primary binding. One of 145 numbered copies (out of a total edition of 150) printed on Italian hand-made paper and signed by the author and by Carol J. Blinn. A very fine copy. $500.00
57. LARKIN, Philip. XX Poems. 8vo, original printed white wrappers. (Hull: Privately Printed), 1951. First edition of Larkin’s rarest book. Privately printed for the author in an edition of 100 copies. Most of the copies were sent by the author to prominent literary figures who generally did not acknowledge receipt, insufficient stamps having been put on the envelopes because postage rates had just been raised. The implication is that copies went undelivered and were destroyed. Bloomfield A4. Presentation copy, inscribed on the dedication page to his later editor at Faber: “For Charles Monteith, efficient friend & charming publisher, Philip Larkin.” Monteith, who succeeded T. S. Eliot as poetry editor at Faber & Faber, was Larkin’s editor for all of his books following The Less Deceived. A beautiful copy, with none of the discoloration typical of the paper used for this publication, preserved in a cloth folding box. A splendid association copy. $15,000.00
58. LEVINE, Philip. On The Edge. 8vo, original brown boards with printed label on spine. Iowa City: Stone Wall Press, (1963). First edition of Levine’s scarce first book. One of 220 copies printed from Romanee type on Golden Hind paper by Kim Merker. Although not called for, this copy is signed by the poet on the title-page. Fine copy. $1750.00
59. LEVINE, Philip. The Simple Truth. Poems. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Knopf, 1994. First edition of Levine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection. Presentation copy, signed by Levine on the title page and additionally inscribed to his Harry Ford, his editor, on the half-title page: “for Harry & Kathleen, can I ever thank you enough? I’ll try. Thanks. Phil”. As new. $1250.00
60. [LOWELL, Robert] AUDEN, W. H., editor. The Faber Book of Modern American Verse. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. London: Faber and Faber Limited, (1956). First edition. Signed by Robert Lowell at his contribution. Bloomfield & Mendelson B60a. Among the contributors are Frost, Stevens, W. C. Williams, Pound, Moore, Ransom, Samuel Greenberg, Crane, and many more all selected by Auden. Moderately sized area of discoloration on the front cover, otherwise a fine copy in a lightly rubbed dust jacket. $375.00
61. McGUANE, Thomas. In the Crazies. Paintings by Russell Chatham. 4to, frontispiece and illustrations tipped-in, original quarter morocco and patterned paper over boards, publisher’s cloth slipcase, with matching separate portfolio containing 10 original prints, 8 lithographs and 2 color etchings, each numbered and signed by Chatham. Seattle, WA.: Winn Books, 1985. First edition. One of 185 numbered copies signed by McGuane and Chatham (there were 5 additional hors commerce copies). Very fine copy. $6500.00
62. MacDIARMID, Hugh (Pseudonym of Christopher Murray Grieve). Collected Poems. 8vo, frontispiece portrait, original black cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Macmillan, 1962. First American edition. Presentation copy, inscribed by the poet: “To my cousin, John Laidlaw, But for whose example and encouragement in my youth these poems might never have been written. From His affectionately, ‘Hugh MacDiarmid’. April 1962”. MacDiarmid also used the pseudonym of A. K. Laidlaw. His letters to John Laidlaw are the University of Edinburgh. Top corner a little bumped, otherwise a fine copy in jacket with just a touch of sunning to spine. $875.00
63. MAJOR, Clarence. Parking Lots. Illustration by Laura Dronzek. 8vo, accordion fold, original map wrappers. (Mt. Horeb, WI): Perishable Press, 1992. First edition. Limited to 130 copies signed by Major. The colophon notes that this is the first time the press tried a combination-accordion double-pamphlet binding. Mint copy. $750.00
64. MERTON, Thomas. Thirty Poems. 8vo, original printed boards, dust jacket. Norfolk, CT: New Directions / The Poets of the Year, (1944). First edition, hardbound issue, of Merton’s first book. Signed by the author on the front free-endpaper: “Thomas Merton [/] (frater M. Louis)”. Laid in is a TLS, 1 page, April 5, 1945, to E. R. Underwood from the Abbot of Our Lady of Gethsemani Monastery, “... I wish to say that for this time we will accede to your request [that Merton sign the book]. Please do not mention it to anyone. We have several authors in the house, and you readily understand that like requests would come in from all sides, and this would be quite against our spirit and our rules. We are glad to know that one of the books is intended for Mr. J. Christian Bay, a dear old friend of the Monastery, and of course we cannot refuse anything to him or asked in his name. Thomas Merten [sic] is now Frater M. Louis, and as you know, a member of the Gethsemani Community...” Spine ends trifle bumped, small bookseller’s label on front pastedown, otherwise a very fine and bright copy. $3500.00
65. MERTON, Thomas. Prometheus / A Meditation. Pro Manuscripto. 8vo, original boards with printed label on the spine. (Lexington, KY: Margaret I. King Library Press, University of Kentucky, Spring 1958). First edition, privately printed. Limited to 150 copies. Presentation copy, inscribed by Merton on the title-page with a drawing and the inscription: “To Mark & Dorothy Van Doren from Tom, 1958.” A superb association copy: Mark Van Doren was Merton’s teacher at Columbia from 1935-1939, and remained an important and steadfast friend for the rest of Merton’s life. As editor of Columbia’s yearbook, The Columbian, Merton dedicated the 1937 edition to Van Doren. Van Doren was an early and influential sponsor of Merton’s writing: “Van Doren was reading Merton’s poetry, commenting on it, and advising Merton where to submit.” Van Doren was responsible for introducing Merton’s work to his friend James Laughlin of New Directions, and instrumental in getting Merton’s first book, Thirty Poems, published. Van Doren also wrote the introduction to Merton’s Selected Poems (New Directions, 1959). In a letter to Merton dated August 9, 1960, Van Doren commented on Disputed Questions (1960), in which Prometheus appeared: “If there was anything left to say about the solitary life, you said it in this beautiful book. As a matter of fact, everything was left to say. And you said it for the first time.” – Selected Letters of Mark Van Doren, Ed. by George Hendrick (Louisiana State University Press, 1987), p. 229. Merton was an accomplished artist, many of whose drawings are reproduced in Dialogues With Solitude: Prayers and Drawings (San Francisco, CA.: Harper, 2001). Compared with those drawings, however, the drawing he made for Van Doren in this book is an especially numinous one. We have not seen or heard of another book by Merton inscribed with a drawing, nor have we encountered any original drawings by Merton on the market. A fine copy of a rare book. $7500.00
66. MERWIN, W. S. The Dancing Bears. 12mo, original boards, dust jacket. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954. First edition. A very fine copy with just a touch of rubbing at the corners of the dust jacket. $450.00
67. MILLAY, Edna St. Vincent. Wine From These Grapes. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. N. Y.: Harper & Brothers, 1934. First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free end-paper by the author to Natalie Clifford Barney: “For Natalie with love from Edna.” In the summer of 1932, Millay went to Paris where Barney gave a dinner party in her honor; she visited Paris again in the spring of 1934, when Barney introduced her to the painter, Pavel Tchelitchew. Wine from These Grapes was published in November of that year, and Millay must have sent Barney this copy as a token of her appreciation and affection. A fine copy in a lightly worn dust jacket. $2500.00
68. MONTALE, Eugenio. Ossi Di Seppia. 4to, original half-vellum & paste-paper boards, slipcase. Verona: (Officina Bodoni), 1964. The best edition of Montale’s first book. Limited to 150 copies printed in Dante type by Giovanni Mardersteig and signed by the great Italian poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Barr 65. Schmoller 135. Montale’s first book, Ossi Di Seppia (Cuttlefish Bones) was first published in 1925 and republished with additions in 1928. The title, and the inspiration for the poems, derive from “the landscape of the Tuscan coast, and in particular the Cinque Terre, a group of villages on the Riviera di Levante north of La Spezia . . . Here, near Monterosso al Mare, Montale spent long summer holidays well into his adult years at his family’s house at Fegina . . . The dry, rocky coastline facing the Tyrrhenian Sea and the gardens and surroundings of the Montale house provide the setting for many of the poems of Ossi di Seppia (whose) themes, as Montale himself described them, are ‘landscape, love, and evasion.’ Ossi di Seppia represents a ‘series of experiments’ – many of them French-influenced, post-symbolist, impressionistic, synesthetic – in creating a voice, which he achieves, definitively, in the ossi brevi, the brief lyrics at the heart of the book which express an unconsoled pessimism in terse, paradoxical formulations.” – Jonathan Galassi, Eugenio Montale: Collected Poems 1920-1954 (N. Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998), pp. 419, 443. A fine copy of a very scarce book. $4500.00
69. MOORE, Marianne. Poems. 8vo, original string-tied decorated wrappers, printed paper label on front cover. London: The Egoist Press, 1921. First edition. Abbott A1. Presentation copy, inscribed to Gordon Cairnie, the owner of the Grolier Bookshop, the legendary poetry book store in Cambridge, MA: “For Gordon Cairnie / I wish it were more than a signature, Mr Cairnie / Marianne Moore / February 2, 1963”. Moore’s first book was prepared and published without her knowledge by her friends Hilda Doolittle and Bryher. A very fine copy, virtually as new, with none of the foxing usually found in this book, in a half-morocco slipcase. Rarely found signed or inscribed, no doubt owing to the circumstances in which it was published; this is the only signed or inscribed copy that we have encountered. $4500.00
70. MORRIS, Wright. Wright Morris. (Photographs). Folio, 12 original silver prints, 9 ½ x7 ½ inches (24.1 x 19.1 cm.), with accompanying printed statement by the artist, in publisher’s tan linen clamshell portfolio with leather label. (N. Y.: Witkin-Berley, 1980). First edition. Limited to 55 copies, consisting of 5 artist’s proofs and 50 numbered sets, with each image signed by Morris on the mount. These beautiful photographs, dating from the 1940s-1950s, include Morris’ most iconic images, some of which appeared in The Inhabitants (1946) and The Home Place (1948). “Like an archeologist, he focused not on people directly, but their artifacts – objects (mostly made of wood) bearing their imprint”. – Andrew Roth, The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the 20th Century. In a letter to Morris, Thomas Mann wrote: “What these courageous pictures show is the harsh beauty of ugliness, the romanticism of the commonplace, the poetry of the unpoetical.” The photographs and portfolio are in fine condition. Rare. $22,500.00
71. [NINJA PRESS] BRINGHURST, Robert. The Book of Silences. Photographs by Carolee Campbell. 8vo, original hand-made paper wrappers with printed label on the cover, publisher’s matching embossed board portfolio. (Sherman Oaks, CA): Ninja Press, 2001. First edition. Limited to 100 copies printed on Moulin du Verger handmade paper and bound in Barcham Green Renaissance, signed by the author. The illustrations are platinum photographs. An exquisite book. Very fine copy, with publisher’s prospectus laid in. $1000.00
72. O’HARA, Frank. Lunch Poems. Small 8vo, original printed wrappers. San Francisco: City Lights Books, (1964). First edition. One of 1500 copies printed. Cook 50. In 1959, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg met O’Hara at Larry Rivers’ studio. Intrigued by the idea that O’Hara was writing poems on his lunch hour, Ferlinghetti proposed publishing a book of his Lunch Poems. O’Hara began corresponding with Ferlinghetti and Donald Allen, who was helping to select the poems for the book, which was finally published by City Lights Books nearly six years later, dressed in O’Hara’s favorite colors, orange and blue. (Gooch). A very fine copy, virtually as new, and rare in this condition. $1000.00
73. OLSON, Charles. “To Corrado Cagli . . . Upon A Moebus Strip.” Large sheet folded to form a four-page leaflet, illustrated. N. Y.: Knoedler, 1947. First separate edition of this poem which was later published as “The Mobius Strip”, comprising the only text in the exhibition flyer/announcement for Knoedler’s show of Corrado Cagli, March 31 – April 19, 1947. Presentation copy, inscribed by Olson beneath his poem: “for Harry Ford – my man, of design, Olson.” Harry Ford became the production design director for Alfred A. Knopf in 1947; he would later become the legendary poetry editor for Atheneum. Neither Knopf nor Atheneum, it must be noted, ever published Olson. Butterick A 2, noting “not for sale. Approximately 500 copies printed.” Boughn A2. A very fine copy. Rare. $1750.00
74. OLSON, Charles. Letter For Melville 1951: Written To Be Read Away From The Melville Society’s ‘One Hundredth Birthday Party’ For Moby-Dick at Williams College, Labor Day Weekend, Sept 2-4, 1951. Long sheets, folded and tipped into a printed folder. Black Mountain College, Black Mountain, North Carolina: (Black Mountain College Press), 1951. First edition. One of approximately 50 copies printed. Boughn A6. Butterick A 4. Presentation copy, inscribed by Olson to his mentor Edward Dahlberg at the end of the poem: “for Edward (Melville’s & my / Ned / with the love of another battler Charles / Dec 51, for his Laurels for Borrowers.” (See Olson to Dahlberg, letter of Dec. 19, 1951, in In Love, In Sorrow: the Complete Correspondence of Charles Olson and Edward Dahlberg pp. 192-195.) Olson’s long poem, a fiery diatribe against professional academicians and Melville scholars, was a great hit with the students at Black Mountain, and was printed at their expense at the Black Mountain College press. Front cover evenly sunned, otherwise in very good condition. An important association copy. $4500.00
75. OLSON, Charles. Apollonius of Tyana: A Dance, With Some Words, For Two Actors. 8vo, illustrated with a four-color lithograph, “Map of Moves”, by Larry Hatt, original two-toned printed boards. Black Mountain College, Black Mountain, NC: (Black Mountain College Print Shop), 1951. First edition. One of 20 copies bound in boards, out of a total edition of 50 copies. Butterick A 5. Boughn A5. Presentation copy, inscribed by Olson to Ed Dorn, who hand-set the type for the book: “For Ed, who had his hand in, & (it is my hope) this is something he can go by.” Originally conceived as a vehicle for a talented student dancer at Black Mountain, Apollonius was printed by Dorn, then a student at Black Mountain College, and probably designed by Larry Hatt, who contributed the frontispiece map. Light soiling to spine, light wear to lower front corner, otherwise a very good copy of a very rare book. A superb association copy: Dorn’s first book, published in 1960, would be What I See In The Maximus Poems. $6500.00
76. OLSON, Charles. The Maximus Poems / 1-10. [with] The Maximus Poems / 11-22. 2 volumes, 4to, calligraphic covers by Jonathan Williams, original blue & black wrappers. Stuttgart, (Germany): Jonathan Williams, 1953-1956. First editions, with the introduction by Robert Creeley laid in as issued. Limited to 300 & 350 copies respectively. Issued as Jargon 7 & 9. A fine set of these elegant and increasingly uncommon books, in a custom-made cloth folding box. $2000.00
77. OLSON, Charles. Projective Verse. 8vo, original decorated wrappers designed by Matsumi Kanemitsu. N. Y.: Totem Press, (1959). First edition. Boughn A14. Butterick A 13. Presentation copy, inscribed by Olson to his Black Mountain College colleague M. C. Richards, author of the influential book on pottery Centering, on the inside front wrapper: “For MC . . . April 19th for the good she brought me Charles.” Olson’s most influential essay, which was originally published in “Poetry New York” in 1950. William Carlos Williams called it a “keystone” work, and reprinted it in his Autobiography. It also was the centerpiece of Donald Allen’s seminal anthology New American Poetry published in 1960. In this essay, composition by field, form as an extension of content, and other tenets of postmodernist verse found their first and clearest expression. Wrappers lightly sunned along spine, otherwise a fine copy, with the errata slip. $1500.00
78. OLSON, Charles. Maximus, From Dogtown – I. With a Foreword by Michael McClure. San Francisco: Auerhahn Press, 1961. First edition of Olson’s great Dogtown lyric, and one of the central poems of the second Maximus series. Limited to 500 copies; published as Auerhahn 14. Butterick A 16. Boughn A17. Presentation copy, inscribed by Olson to Jonathan Williams – the publisher of Olson’s Maximus Poems – on the front cover: “for Jonathan, Charles” Olson has numbered the colophon “#1” and signed the page. No signed or numbered issue of this title is recorded by either Butterick or Boughn. Maximus, From Dogtown was written the evening after Olson took LeRoi Jones, Don Allen, and Michael McClure on a tour of Dogtown. Corners a little bumped, otherwise a fine copy. $2500.00
79. ONO, Yoko. Penny Views. Small 8vo, illustrated by the author/artist, original boards with polished copper spine lettering, in original printed paper envelope. (Santa Barbara, CA.: Turkey Press, 1995). First Edition. One of 125 numbered copies (the entire edition) and signed by Yoko Ono. A hand- printed artist’s book consisting of 24 letter-press drawings by Yoko Ono on black mingei and kakishibu (a handmade persimmon-washed kozo) Japanese paper, and hand-bound. As new. $850.00
80. [PENUMBRA PRESS] A comprehensive collection of the publications of Bonnie O’Connell’s Penumbra Press, 20 volumes, various sizes. Lisbon, Iowa: Penumbra Press, 1974-1987. First editions, hardcover issues when available, all limited editions, signed when issued as such. The collection includes such rare and notable books and chapbooks as Rita Dove’s Ten Poems (1977), Tess Gallagher’s Stepping Outside (1974), Deborah Greger’s Provisional Landscapes (1974) and Cartography (1980), David St. John’s For Lerida (1973) and The Man in the Yellow Gloves (1984), in addition to books by William Keens, Jon Anderson, Phoebe Carlile, Norman Dubie, Peter Everwine, Brenda Hillman, Laura Jensen, Abigail Luttinger, Steve Orlen, Sam Pereira, Howard Silver, among others. The collection also includes ephemera from the press, including prospectuses, announcements, including the birth announcement for O’Connell’s son, Valentines, and two fine letters from O’Connell to the poet William Keens, who formed this collection, and whose book, Dear Anyone, O’Connell published in 1976. The collection also includes 3 additional volumes of poetry by Ann Deagon, Lynn Emanuel, and Ron Hansen, which were published by Abattoir Editions after O’Connell moved to Omaha and took over the direction of that press. Apart from some slight fading to the spines of several of the books, the books are in uniformly fine condition. A detailed list is available. $6000.00
81. [PHOTOGRAPHY] BRASSAÏ. The Artists of My Life. Translated from the French by Richard Miller. Large 4to, illustrated, original cloth & paste-paper boards. N. Y.: (Witkin-Berley, Ltd., 1982). First edition. Deluxe issue of 150 copies comprising “specially selected sheets” from the original publication by the Viking Press “bound in a unique and deluxe style,” and signed by Brassaï, with an original hand-pulled dust-grained gravure, made by Jon Goodman and also signed by Brassaï, of Henri Matisse drawing from the nude, 1939, in a special binding designed by Sage Reynolds and executed at the Four Hands Bindery, New York; produced and privately issued by Witken-Berley, Ltd. in October 1982. The photograph, which is signed in the matt, measures 7 7/8th x 10 inches. A fine copy. Rare. $4500.00
82. [PHOTOGRAPHY] LEIBOVITZ, Annie. Women. Essay by Susan Sontag. Small folio, original printed boards, dust jacket. New York: Random House, (1999). First edition. Signed by both Leibovitz and Sontag, and uncommon thus. Very fine copy in dust jacket, with some light wear at extremities. $850.00
83. POUND, Ezra. Personae. The Collected Poems of Ezra Pound. Including Ripostes, Lustra, Homage To Sextus Propertius, H. S. Mauberley. 8vo, frontispiece by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, illustrated, original blue cloth, dust jacket. N. Y.: Boni & Liveright, 1926. First edition of this selection of all of Ezra Pound’s poems to date except the unfinished Cantos. Gallup A27a. A fine copy in slightly chipped and soiled dust jacket. A scarce book in dust jacket, especially in collectible condition. $1500.00
84. [POUND, Ezra] The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Some Testimonies by Ernest Hemingway, Ford Madox Ford, T. S. Eliot, Hugh Walpole, Archibald MacLeish, James Joyce and Others. 8vo, original self-wrappers, stapled. N. Y.: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., (1933). First edition. Among the other contributions, unnamed on the title-page, are William Carlos Williams, Edmund Wilson, Basil Bunting, H. D., and Allen Tate. Wrappers lightly worn and sunned, otherwise a very good copy. $225.00
85. POWYS, John Cowper. A Glastonbury Romance. Thick 8vo, original quarter-leather & boards, t.e.g., publisher’s slipcase. N. Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1932. First edition of Powys’ masterpiece, the American edition preceding the English edition. One of 200 copies signed by Powys. A fine copy in the rare slipcase. $1250.00
86. RANSOM, John Crowe. Chills and Fever. Poems. 8vo, original cloth-backed patterned boards, dust jacket. N. Y.: Knopf, 1924. First edition, first binding, of Ransom’s second regularly published book, including his most memorable poem, “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter”, in addition to “Winter Remembered”, “Necrological”, “Here Lies A Lady” and “Captain Carpenter”. Some discoloration to front endpapers, otherwise a fine copy in a very good dust jacket, which is lightly chipped at the head of the spine with some wear and tear at the front fold. A splendid book, rare in this condition, and, in our opinion, grossly undervalued today. $875.00
87. SASSOON, Siegfried. (I) Memoirs Of A Fox-Hunting Man. (II) Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer. (III) Sherston’s Progress. 3 volumes, 8vo, original blue cloth, dust jackets. London: Faber & Gwyer; Faber & Faber, 1928, 1930, 1936. First trade editions of each of the three volumes in Sassoon’s celebrated World War I trilogy, the first volume in the “bibliographically preferred” first state with untrimmed edges. Keynes A30a, A33a, A40a. Some foxing on edges of text block of two volumes, signature on rear pastedown of Memoirs of An Infantry Officer (nick in the top of the spine panel of the dust jacket), but a fine set of Sassoon’s semi-autobiographical memoirs. $3500.00
88. SASSOON, Siegfried. Memoirs Of A Fox-Hunting Man. With Illustrations By William Nicholson. 8vo, illustrated, original decorated vellum, t.e.g., pictorial & tissue dust jackets. London: Faber & Faber, (1929). First illustrated edition of Sassoon’s classic autobiographical novel of pre- World War I England. Limited to 300 numbered copies printed on English hand-made paper at the Chiswick Press and signed by Sassoon & Nicholson. This deluxe issue, one of the finest of modern illustrated books, makes for a perfect pairing of illustrator and text. Very fine copy in slightly rubbed jacket, faintly tanned along the spine panel. $2750.00
89. SCHUYLER, James. The Fireproof Floors of Witley Court. English Songs and Dances by James Schuyler. 8vo, illustrated with architectural cut-out endpapers fashioned after the topiary gardens at Levens Hall, Westmorland, England, original orange decorated wrappers. Newark, West Burke, Vermont: The Janus Press, (1976). First edition. Limited to 150 numbered copies printed, torn, cut, and bound by Claire Van Vliet at the Janus Press on and of Kozu, Fabriano and Canson paper. Although not called for, this copy is signed by Schuyler on the front free endpaper. One of Schuyler’s scarcest books owing to the fact that most of the edition went to subscribers of the press, with the result that few copies of this delightful book have been available for collectors of the poet. Narrow, three-quarter inch strip of light fading along the top of the front cover, otherwise a fine copy. $2500.00
90. SCHUYLER, James. The Home Book: Prose and Poems, 1951-1970. Edited by Trevor Winkfield. 8vo, original wrappers with front cover illustration by Darragh Park. Calais, VT: Z Press, 1977. First edition. One of 1000 copies printed by the Stinehour Press. Although not called for, this copy is also signed by Darragh Park on the copyright page. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Don Allen on the half-title: “For Don – affection, admiration – too long unseen – love, Jimmy, Jan. 9, 1977”. Spine slightly cocked, otherwise a fine copy. $750.00
91. SNYDER, Gary. A Range Of Poems. 8vo, frontispiece portrait, illustrations by Will Peterson, original brown cloth, white dust jacket. London: Fulcrum Press, (1966). First edition, special signed issue. One of only 50 copies signed by Snyder out of a total of 100 numbered copies printed on Glastonbury antique laid paper. McNeil A13b. In this issue, the most elusive of all of Snyder’s books. A very fine copy. $2500.00
92. SPICER, Jack. After Lorca. With an Introduction by Federico Garcia Lorca (sic). 8vo, original pictorial wrappers with cover drawing by Jess. (San Francisco: White Rabbit Press, 1957). First edition of Spicer’s first book of poetry. One of 26 lettered copies signed by Spicer with a drawing by the poet out of a total edition of 500 copies typed on an Olivetti Lexikon 80 by Robert Duncan and multilithd by Joe Dunn for the White Rabbit Press, with a cover design by Jess. Lorca’s posthumous introduction is unique in the annals of poetry: “My reaction to the manuscript . . . was and is fundamentally unsympathetic. It seems to me the waste of a considerable talent on something which is not worth doing. The late Senor Lorca notes, however, that the dead are notoriously hard to satisfy.” Although not noted, this copy belonged to the poet and Jargon Society publisher Jonathan Williams. Covers somewhat foxed, spine portion rubbed, otherwise a very good copy. Rare. $6500.00
93. STAFFORD, William. Traveling through the Dark. 8vo, original pictorial boards, dust jacket. N. Y. & Evanston: Harper & Row, (1962). First edition of Stafford’s National Book Award winning book, containing his best known poem from which the book takes its title. Signed by the poet. Fine copy. $450.00
94. STEIN, Gertrude. Lucy Church Amiably: A Novel of Romantic Beauty and Nature and Which Looks Like an Engraving by Gertrude Stein. 8vo, original bright blue paper boards, plain unprinted dust jacket. Paris: Imprimerie Union: 1930. First edition. Slight wear to boards as always, otherwise a fine bright copy of this fragile book, in lightly worn dust jacket. Preserved in a cloth folding box. $1000.00
95. (STEVENS, Wallace). “Three Academic Pieces” (in) Partisan Review. Volume XIV, No. 3. May-June, 1947. 8vo, original printed wrappers. N. Y.: Partisan Review, 1947. First appearance in print of Three Academic Pieces, consisting of one essay and two poems: “The Realm of Resemblance”, “Someone Puts a Pineapple Together” and “Of Ideal Time and Choice”. Edelstein C172. Signed by Stevens on p. 254. With contributions by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Delmore Schwartz, Mary McCarthy, Randall Jarrell, William Carlos Williams, among others. Covers slightly sunned and dust-soiled, otherwise a fine copy. $750.00
96. STEVENS, Wallace. Three Academic Pieces. The Realm of Resemblance, Someone Puts a Pineapple Together, Of Ideal Time and Choice. Small 8vo, original bright green paper-covered hand-decorated boards, plain unprinted dust jacket. (Cummington, MA): Cummington Press, 1947. First edition. One of 102 copies printed on Worthy Dacian paper and bound thus by Arno Werner out of a total edition of 246 copies printed. Edelstein A12Fine, bright copy in the rare dust jacket. $2250.00
97. STEVENS, Wallace. Raoul Dufy. A Note by Wallace Stevens. Oblong, large 4to, original printed blue wrappers, string-tied as issued. (N. Y.: Pierre Berès, 1953). First edition of this four-page essay on Dufy’s La Fée Electricité. One of 200 numbered copies on handmade Arnold paper printed by the Ram Press. Edelstein A20. The present copy, however, differs from Edelstein’s description in two particulars: there is no copyright stamp on the inside front wrapper and the colophon page is not numbered in holograph. A very fine copy of one of Stevens’ scarcest publications. $1500.00
98. [STEVENS, Wallace] (MORSE, Samuel French, editor). Two New Poems [in] The Trinity Review, Vol. VIII, No. 3. 4to, illustrations, original wrappers, front cover portrait of Stevens by Inez Campo. Hartford, CT: Trinity College, May, 1954. First appearance in print of “Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself”, written specially for this issue of the Review, and first U. S. printing of “The Rock”. Edelstein C207. Signed by Stevens, John Malcolm Brinnin, and Richard Eberhart at their contributions. This issue of The Trinity Review, “A Celebration for Wallace Stevens”, was prepared on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday and contains contributions by T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, and William Empson among others. Very fine copy. $1500.00
99. STRAND, Mark. Elegy For My Father, Robert Strand, 1908-1968. Square small 4to, illustrated with photo silk screens by Gretchen Esping, original black wrappers. (Iowa City: Windhover Press, 1973). First edition. One of 150 copies printed on handmade Japanese Shogun paper (the entire edition). Fine copy of this rare book. $750.00
100. TATE, James. If It Would All Please Hurry. A Poem. Etchings & Engravings by Stephen Riley. Folio, with 10 original etchings & engravings (6 full-page) on Arches Cover White paper, loose sheets in folding box. Amherst: Shanachie Press, 1980. First edition. One of only 10 lettered copies reserved for the author and artist (this being copy “J”) out of a total edition of 35 copies produced, of which 25 roman-numeraled copies were for sale; all copies were signed by the poet and the artist, with each of the original prints also numbered and signed in the margin by the artist. Presentation copy, inscribed by both Tate and Riley to Stanley Wiater, the man who brought the poet and artist together. Riley’s inscription reads “For my friend Stan – fellow bibliophile, confidant, taster of the fantastic and esoteric, to whom in large part the very existence of this suite is due. With thanks – Stephen Riley / 1 September 1980.” Tate’s inscription reads: “For Stan, without whom it wouldn’t have . . . because of whom it has. Horror of horror – with friendship, Jim Tate.” Stephen Riley, who illustrated and published If It Would All Please Hurry was a young artist in his twenties, who died not long after the portfolio was published. Stanley Wiater is a writer of horror fiction, who attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the Seventies. According to Wiater, the edition fell short of its stated limitation, which would account for its rarity on the market. Portfolio lightly soiled, otherwise a very fine copy, perhaps the most desirable copy, of Tate’s rarest publication. $5000.00
101. THOMAS, Dylan. Deaths And Entrances. Poems. 12mo, original orange cloth, dust jacket. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., (1946). First edition. One of 3000 copies printed. Rolph B10. Connolly 100, 96a. Includes “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, By Fire, of a Child in London”, “Poem in October (‘It was my thirtieth year to heaven’)”, “In my craft or Sullen Art”, and “Fern Hill”, among other important poems. Very fine copy. $1500.00
102. THOMAS, Dylan. In Country Sleep and Other Poems. 8vo, photographic portrait of Thomas mounted on title-page, original printed boards, dust jacket. (N. Y.): New Directions, (1952). First trade edition, one of 5000 copies printed. Rolph B15. Thomas’ most famous poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” makes its first book appearance in this volume. A very fine copy in a price-clipped dust jacket. Uncommon in this condition. $750.00
103. TWAIN, Mark, translator. Tale of the Caliph Stork. Illustrated by Eleanor Simmons. Tall 8vo, original cloth with printed label on front cover. Iowa City: Windhover Press, 1976. First edition. Limited to 100 copies printed from Bembo types on Rives Heavy paper. A few small spots on front cover, otherwise a fine copy of one of the scarcest books from the Windhover Press. $750.00
104. WILLIAMS, C. K. A Day for Anne Frank. 4to, illustrated, original pictorial wrappers. (Philadelphia, PA: Falcon Press, 1968). First edition of Williams’ first book. Although not called for, this copy is signed by the poet. Very fine copy. Rare. $1500.00
105. WILLIAMS, C. K. Creatures. Small 4to, original quarter black morocco & hand-made paste- paper over boards, paper slipcase, by Claudia Cohen. Haverford, PA: Green Shade, 2006. First edition, deluxe issue, of this collection of poems, preceding their appearance in Williams’ Collected Poems. One of 26 lettered copies printed on Twinrocker handmade paper at The Grenfell Press, specially bound, and signed by the poet. As new, at publication price. $850.00
106. WILLIAMS, William Carlos. Spring and All. Small 8vo, original printed wrappers. (Paris: Contact Publishing Co., 1923). First edition. One of 300 copies printed by Maurice Darantiere, the printer of Joyce’s Ulysses; however, as the bibliographer notes: “many of these may not have been distributed.” Wallace A7. “There were 300 copies, Paris bookshops were not interested, American customs held up shipments for months, American reviewers based 12 miles from Rutherford merely sneered at expatriates when they noticed such books at all. ‘Nobody ever saw it’ – Williams, 35 years later – ‘it had no circulation at all.’” – Hugh Kenner, The Pound Era (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), p. 384. As Mariani notes: “most of the copies that were sent to America were simply confiscated by American customs officials as foreign stuff and therefore probably salacious and destructive of American morals. In effect, Spring and All all but disappeared as a cohesive text until its republication nearly ten years later after Williams’ death.” – Paul Mariani, William Carlos Williams (N. Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1981), pp. 208-209. Spring and All includes in untitled form: (“Spring and All”) “By the road to the contagious hospital”, (“To Elsie”) “The pure products of America go crazy”, (“The Sea”) “The sea that encloses her body”, (“The Red Wheelbarrow”) “So much depends”, and (“The Wildflower”) “Black eyed susan”. Spine sunned, marginal discoloration to front wrapper, but a very good copy of a book that is usually found only in poor condition. One of Williams’ scarcest and most important books. $2500.00
107. [WINDELL PRESS] VELEZ DE GUEVARA, Luis. Ines Reigned in Death. Translated by Joseph R. Jones and Kenneth Muir. 4to, illustrated with drawings by Robert James Foose, original quarter cloth with black cloth-covered boards. Lexington, KY.: The Windell Press, 1988. First edition. Limited to 100 copies printed in Jenson and Arrighi types on Japanese Iyo glazed paper. A very fine copy, with publisher’s prospectus laid in. $150.00
108. WRIGHT, James. Collected Poems. 8vo, frontispiece, original cloth, dust jacket. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, (1971). First edition of Wright’s Pulitzer Prize winning collection. Very fine copy. Scarce in such condition. $350.00
109. YEATS, W. B. The Wild Swans At Coole. 8vo, original blue cloth designed by Sturge Moore, dust jacket. London: Macmillan & Co, 1919. First edition. One of 1500 copies printed. Wade 124. In addition to incorporating the twenty-nine poems first published in the limited Cuala Press edition of the same name, the present trade edition of The Wild Swans At Coole includes the first book appearances of “In Memory of Major Robert Gregory” and “An Irish Airman foresees his Death”, two of Yeats’ most important poems. The collection also includes the title poem, “The Collar Bone of a Hare”, “Upon a Dying Lady”, “Phases of the Moon”, “The Scholars”, “To A Young Beauty”, among others. A fine copy in the rare dust jacket, which is faded at the spine and lightly soiled and worn at extremities. $3500.00
110. YEATS, W. B. The Tower. Small 8vo, original gilt-decorated cloth by T. Sturge Moore, dust jacket. London: Macmillan, 1928. First edition of Yeats’ single most important collection of poems, containing “Sailing To Byzantium”, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen”, “Leda and the Swan”, “Among School Children” & “All Souls’ Night”, among other masterpieces. One of 2000 copies printed. Wade 158. Connolly 100, 56a. A fine bright copy with some very slight wear at the extremities of the dust jacket. An increasingly scarce book in fine condition. $4000.00