POETRY: 20th and 21st Century including prose by poets POETRY including prose by poets JOHN ASHBERY W. H. AUDEN SAMUEL BECKETT PAUL BLACKBURN CHARLES BUKOWSKI CID CORMAN ROBERT CREELEY ROBERT DUNCAN THEODORE ENSLIN T. S. ELIOT ALLEN GINSBERG TED HUGHES JAMES JOYCE DENISE LEVERTOV MICHAEL MCCLURE JAMES MERRILL W. S. MERWIN EZRA POUND GARY SNYDER WALLACE STEVENS WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS LOUIS ZUKOFSKY AND OTHER 20th & 21st CENTURY AUTHORS RIVERRUN 1. ADAM, Helen. City, issue 3. Edited by Marilyn Hacker and Samuel Delaney. New York: R. Fitzgerald, 1968. Folio. 17, [1] pp. Mimeod. Photographically illustrated. Stapled as issued in original printed wrappers. Fine. FIRST EDITION of the third issue of City, entirely devoted to Helen Adam's work. Scarce. (402516). $80 2. Æ (pseudonymn on George W. RUSSELL). Dark Weeping. London: Faber and Faber, 1929. 8vo. [13] pp. Two full-page designs by Paul Nash. Original printed boards. Slightest shadow to front board, minimal wear at extremities. LIMITED ISSUE, number 276 of 400 copies on large-paper and case bound, signed by Æ. Nash’s mystical plate is hand-colored. This is no. 19 of the Ariel Poems series. Russell adopted the name Æ from Æon signifying the lifelong quest of man. A Dublin-born author, critic, and painter, Æ met Yeats through Joyce in 1902 and practiced theosophy and mysticism throughout his adult life. He claimed to be clairvoyant and conversant with spiritual beings, which he illustrated in his paintings and drawings. (402521). $275 3. ALLEN Donald, Editor. The New American Poetry. New York: Grove Press / Evergreen, 1960. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Some light wear to wrappers. FIRST TRADE EDITION, inscribed by Allen Ginsberg on the half-title: “For Michael Matros 9/27/91.” Signed “Allen Ginsberg” beneath a characteristic drawing of a sunflower. Ginsberg was represented by eight poems in Donald Allen’s seminal anthology. (400019). $75 4. ANDREWS, Bruce and Charles BERNSTEIN, editors. L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, Vol. 1, no. 4. New York: August 1978. First edition. 4to. [28]pp. Self-wrappers, stappled. Fine. The back cover reproduced a 1920 collage by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy from Richard Kostelantz’s Moholy-Nagy (1970). This issue of Andrews and Bernstein’s landmark journal of the Language poets opens with an essay by Ron Silliman on Louis Zukofsky, and later includes Silliman’s classic distillation “For L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E.” Other contributors include Eric Mottram, Richard Foreman, Bruce Andrews, Michael Gottlieb, and Joseph Timko. (401523). $50 3 5. ASHBERY, John; KOCH, Kenneth; and SCHUYLER, James, editors. Locus Solus. New York: 1961-62. First. A complete set of this important avant-garde little magazine, co- edited by three of the major figures of the New York School, comprising the first four issues (the third volume is a double-issue). A fine set. FIRST EDITIONS. Volume I: Winter 1961. Edited by James Schuyler. Includes ten poems by Frank O’Hara, nine sonnets by Edwin Denby, seven poems by Barbara Guest, six poems by John Ashbery, etc. This has the first state of the wrapper, untrimmed. Volume II: Summer 1961. Edited by Kenneth Koch. Special issue of Collaborations. Includes a long section from A Nest of Ninnies (Ashbery and Schuyler), work by Ceravolo, etc. Volumes III-IV: Winter 1962. Double Issue. Edited by John Ashbery. “New Poetry.” Includes work by Berkson, Ceravolo, Elmslie, Merrill, O’Hara, LeRoi Jones, etc. Locus Solus is a landmark anthology of important innovative writing of the time and a defining statement of the first generation of the NY School. (400012). $500 6. ASHBERY, John and James SCHUYLER. A Nest of Ninnies. Calais, VT: Z Press, 1975. 8vo. Original printed wrappers after a design by Joe Brainard. Wrappers lightly rubbed. Second edition, one of 2,500 copies. Originally published by Dutton in 1969. (400653). $30 7. ASHBERY, John. And the Stars Were Shining. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, [1994]. 8vo. 100 pp. Original cloth; dust jacket. Fine. FIRST EDITION of Ashbery’s sixteenth collection of poems. (402506). $50 8. ASHBERY, John. Can You Hear, Bird. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, [1995]. 8vo. 175 pp. Original cloth-backed boards; dust jacket. Fine. FIRST EDITION of Ashbery’s seventeenth collection of poems. (402505). $30 9. ASHBERY, John – Jane FREILICHER. Jane Freilicher March 1995. New York: Fischbach Gallery, 1995. 4to. Color plates. Original printed wrappers. Fine. FIRST EDITION. With a list of solo exhibitions, public and private collections, and a select bibliography. Both a fine distillation of Freilicher’s work, and a scarce Ashbery work. (400261). $25 4 10. ASHBERY, John. Ignorance of the Law is no Excuse. [Iowa City, IA]: Empyrean Press, 2004. Broadside. 11 x 18 inches. Color illustration by David Tallitsch. Fine. FIRST EDITION, one of 200 copies signed by Ashbery and Tallitsch. Printed on Rives BFK paper from Parisine Plus and Syntax Types. (402542). $90 11. AUDEN, W. H. Spain. London: Faber and Faber, [1937]. 8vo. 12 pp. Original red printed wrappers. Soft diagonal crease, otherwise fine. FIRST EDITION, first printing. 2,913 copies. Auden donated all proceeds from the sale of the pamphlet to medical aid for Spain. Bloomfield & Mendelson A14a. (402314). $175 12. AUDEN, W. H. and Louis MACNEICE. Letters from Iceland. London: Faber & Faber, [1937]. 8vo. 268 pp. Large folding map at end; profusely illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Auden. Original light green cloth; pictorial dust jacket. One small chip at foot of spine panel, generally fresh and bright. FIRST EDITION. SIGNED by Auden in his characteristic tiny hand on the front flyleaf. AND WITH AN ANS laid-in, postcard postmarked 14 May 1935, to the Secretary of The Poetry Society, thanking him for an invitation to read. “Unfortunately I can never get away on Wednesdays. I am sorry.” Bloomfield & Mendelsohn A15a. (402310). $800 13. AUDEN, W. H. The Age of Anxiety. New York: Random House, [1947]. 8vo. 138 pp. Original dark bluish green cloth; printed dust jacket. Small closed tear at top of rear jacket panel, slightly toned and a few tiny touches at extremities, a near-fine copy. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. This first edition precedes the first UK edition by over one year. Auden’s book-length modern eclogue, partly set in a bar on Third Avenue in New York, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. It was the basis of Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphony, no. 2” and Jerome Robbins 1950 ballet. One of 3,500 copies. Bloomfield & Mendelson A29a. (402309). $300 5 14. AUDEN, W. H. The Enchafèd Flood. Three Critical Essays on the Romantic Spirit. New York: Random House, [1950]. 8vo. 154 pp. Original dark-green cloth lettered in white; printed dust jacket. Jacket price-clipped, spine toned, split along rear joint, a few short tears/nicks at edges, first owner’s signature on front free endpaper. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. SIGNED on the title-page by Auden, beneath his crossed- out printed name. These lectures were delivered at the University of Virginia 22-24 March 1949. One of 2,500 copies. Bloomfield & Mendelson A31a. (402308). $250 15. AUDEN, W. H. The Old Man’s Road. New York: Voyages, [1956]. 8vo. [24] pp. Original light-grey printed wrappers. Slightest toning to edges of wrappers and front endleaves, soft paperclip impression on front wrapper, generally a fine copy. FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, number 24 of 50 copies signed by Auden. Bloomfield & Mendelson A36. (402315). $650 6 16. AUDEN, W. H. The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays. New York: Random House, [1962]. 8vo. 527 pp. Original green cloth; grey printed dust jacket. Jacket a bit toned and touched at extremities, small penmark on spine. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. SIGNED BY AUDEN on the title, beneath his crossed-out printed name. The text includes the famous lectures he delivered as Oxford Professor of Poetry, with a strong emphasis on Shakespearian verse. Bloomfield & Mendelson A45a. (402311). $300 17. AUDEN, W. H. Louis MacNeice a memorial address. London: Privately printed for Faber and Faber, [1963]. 8vo. 14 pp. Original rose printed wrappers. Fine. FIRST EDITION. An edition of 250 copies, not distributed at the memorial service, but sent out after to a number of personal friends whose names were mainly suggested by Mrs. MacNeice. Bloomfield & Mendelson A46. (402317). $75 18. AUDEN, W. H. The Platonic Blow. New York: The Fuck You Press, 1965. Square 8vo. [12] pp. Original printed wrappers. A fine copy with only minimal handling wear. FIRST EDITION. One of 300 copies of the “Trade edition” (there was also the “Rough Trade Edition” of 5 copies; an edition of 3 unnumbered copies; and the “Turkey Edition” of two copies). “According to persistent rumour the poem generally knows as ‘The Platonic blow’ was written by Auden in 1948 under the stylistic influence of Charles Williams. The poem appears to have circulated in typescript copies, one of which came into the hands of Mr. Ed Sanders, who printed it in his magazine ‘Fuck you / a magazine of the arts’... The notoriety attaching to this first appearance led Mr. Sanders to issue [this] following separate edition” (Bloomfield & Mendelson, p. 366, Appendix II). (402313). $225 7 19. AUDEN, W. H. City Without Walls and Other Poems. New York: Random House, [1969]. 8vo. 124, [1] pp. Original two-toned cloth; printed dust jacket. Two tiny closed tears at edges, light scuffing to rear panel, generally a fresh and bright copy. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, first printing. Bloomfield & Mendelson A63 (first edition). (402312). $60 20. AUDEN, W. H. Epistle to a Godson and Other Poems. London: Faber and Faber, [1972]. 8vo. 72 pages. Original grey printed wrappers. Slightest toning at edges, a fine copy. Uncorrected proof of the first edition of the last collection of poetry published by Auden before his death in 1973.