The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace and Other Poems.
N. Y. Knopf, 1959. First edition. Hagstrom & Bixby A10a; Hagstrom & Morgan A10a. Fine copy in slightly rubbed jacket, sunned along the spine panel. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. More
N. Y. Knopf, 1959. First edition. Hagstrom & Bixby A10a; Hagstrom & Morgan A10a. Fine copy in slightly rubbed jacket, sunned along the spine panel. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. More
N. Y. Alfred A. Knopf, 1959. First edition. Signed by Merrill on the title-page. Hagstrom & Bixby A10a; Hagstrom & Morgan A10a. Fine copy in dust jacket that is lightly dust-soiled on the back panel and sunned along the spine panel. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. More
N. Y. Alfred A. Knopf, 1951. First edition of Merrill's first regularly published book. One of 990 numbered copies. Although not called for, signed by Merrill on the title-page. Hagstrom & Bixby A4; Hagstrom & Morgan A4. A very fine copy in price-clipped dust jacket. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket. More
N. Y. Nadja, 1988. First edition. One of 26 lettered copies specially bound in cloth & signed by Merrill out of a stated edition of 74 copies. Hagstrom & Morgan A69b1. Mint. 8vo, original cloth with printed label. More
N. Y. Privately Printed, 1942. First edition of Merrill's rare first book, privately printed by his father while Merrill was a sixteen year old student at Lawrenceville Academy in Princeton. No firm figures on the number of copies exist, but the most plausible estimate is about 200 copies. Hagstrom & Bixby A1; Hagstrom & Morgan A1. A beautiful copy, seldom seen in this condition, preserved in a linen folding box with leather label. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, tissue dust jacket. More
N. Y. & Kripplebush: Nadja, 1993. First edition. Hagstrom & Morgan A88a2. One of 30 roman-numeraled copies reserved for the author and the artist out of a total edition of 130 copies bound in wrappers & signed by Merrill & Tanning; this is copy iv. Tarlau was a friend of Merrill's & designed bindings for a number of his limited editions. A unique feline presentation, depicting nine cats, on a rare issue of this late collection, signed Oriane in gilt letter-press on the front endsheet. 8vo, full blue onlaid calf, with original wrappers bound in, matching calf & marbled board suede-lined chemise & silver-gilt slipcase by Jill Oriane Tarlau. More
(N. Y.): Nadja, (1984). First edition. One of 26 lettered copies bound in red linen & signed by Merrill; there were also 200 signed copies bound in wrappers. Hagstrom & Morgan A53a. Mint copy. 4to, original red cloth, printed label. More
Cambridge, MA: Temple Bar Bookshop, 1974. First published edition, after 26 photocopied typescripts run off by the author; the bibliographers refer to this as the "second edition, first impression, paperback issue." One of 750 copies. Hagstrom & Bixby A25c. Presentation copy, inscribed by Merrill to his close friends, the Summers: "for Joe & U. T. with love always. Jim 1974" Front hinge strained, spine a bit sunned, otherwise a fine copy. 8vo, original printed wrappers. More
(N. Y.): Thought, 1960. First separate edition, an offprint, of this important thirty-five page essay on Pasternak's being awarded, and rejecting, the Nobel Prize in 1958. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author at the top of the front wrapper "To Mark (Van Doren) blessings & love for the New Year, Tom." The essay was subsequently published in Disputed Questions (1960). In 1973, the King Library Press at the University of Kentucky published Boris Pasternak / Thomas Merton. Six Letters, documenting the rich but all-too brief correspondence between Merton and Pasternak. In a letter to John Harris, Pasternak had written of Merton: "his precious thoughts and dear bottomless letters enrich me and make me happy. At a better time I shall thank and write him. Now I am not in a position to do so. Say to him his high feelings and prayers have saved my life." For his part, Merton had written that "he had a closer contact with Pasternak on the other side of the world than with people a few miles away, and more in common with him than with monks in his own monastery."- Michael Mott, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), p...... More
Norfolk, CT: New Directions / The Poets of the Year, (1944). First edition, the scarce hardbound issue, of Merton’s first book. A few faint creases in dust jacket, having been preserved folded and placed in the book, otherwise virtually as new. 8vo, original printed boards, dust jacket. More
(Sherman Oaks, CA): Ninja Press, 1995. First separate edition of this long poem which was originally published in Travels (N. Y.: Knopf, 1992), printed accordion-fold, so that when fully extended, the text is fifteen feet long. Limited to 160 copies printed from "hand-set Samson Uncial type on kakishibu, a persimmon-washed handmade paper" from the Fuji Mills Cooperative in Tokushima, Japan, illustrated with the image of an undulating river printed from photopolymer plates in five colors, the whole enclosed in layers of folders of handmade paper, the penultimate layer printed with Athanasius Kircher's 1665 map of the world, the first to show the world's currents, with the outermost layer/folder made of a "loft-dried raw flax sheet", signed by Merwin. A very fine copy of this extraordinary production. Oblong folio, illustrated, accordion-fold, original handmade paper folders. More
(No place): The Finial Press in Vermont, 1973. First edition. Limited to 200 copies printed on Curtis Rag paper in Helvetica type by A. D. Moore. Signed by the poet on the title–page. Very fine copy. Square 8vo, original blue paper wrappers. More
(London): Coracle Press, 1987. First edition of this collaboration between Thomas Meyer & the late Sandra Fisher, including essays on the poetry & portraiture by Jonathan Williams & R. B. Kitaj (Fisher's husband), respectively. One of 50 copies signed by all of the contributors. As new. Large 4to, illustrated with tipped-in reproductions of original oil paintings by Sandra Fisher, cloth, glassine dust jacket, slipcase. More
BRASSAI. Paris: Olympia Press, 1956. First edition, the rare first state with the photographs printed with a glossy finish (rather than the common matte finish). Shifreen & Jackson A100a. Kearney 20. Slight crease in spine, otherwise a fine copy. Small 8vo, original decorated wrappers designed by T. Tajiri. More
(Madison, WI: Red Ozier Press, 1979). First edition. One of 28 specially bound copies, out of a total edition of 138 copies printed, signed by Miller. Peich 15. Mint copy. Small 8vo, quarter leather & boards. More
BAJ, Enrico. Milano: Libreria Bocca, (1981). First edition. One of 100 numbered copies printed by the Officina Bodoni, with an original print by Enrico Baj, editioned & signed, as frontispiece. Fine copy in lightly rubbed slipcase. 8vo, quarter morocco & marbled boards, t.e.g., acetate dust jacket, matching marbled slipcase with leather tips. More
N. Y. The Viking Press, 1965. First edition of these two long essays that originally appeared in The New Yorker. The title essay became the basis for the film with Ian Holm as Joe Gould, and Stanley Tucci, who also directed the film, as the author. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper “For Harry Roskolenko / with kindest regards / Joseph Mitchell / October 18, 1965.” Roskolenko reviewed Joe Gould’s Secret for the New York Times, and the publisher’s review slip, giving the publication date of September 16, 1965, is laid in. Dust jacket a bit rubbed, with a few short closed tears, otherwise a fine copy. 8vo, original cloth-backed boards, dust jacket. More
N. Y. Duell, Sloan & Pearce, (1948). First edition. Signed by Mitchell on the front free endpaper. Fine copy in a trifle dust-soiled jacket with a short pen mark on front panel. 8vo, red cloth, pictorial dust jacket by Immerman. More
Boston: Little Brown & Co., (1959). First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper: "for Daise Terry, with love, Joe Mitchell, June 9, 1960". Daisy Terry was the office manager at the New Yorker, where Mitchell was employed as a staff writer for most of his career; he continued to appear at the office daily until the end of his life, though in his last years he appears to have written nothing at all. This is Mitchell's third book, containing the story "Up at the Old Hotel", which would serve as the title piece of his collected works, issued by Pantheon in 1992. A tiny nick to the head of the spine, otherwise a fine copy in a slightly rubbed & chipped jacket. 8vo, boards, dust jacket. More
Chicago: Poetry, 1936. The Objectivists issue of Poetry, edited by Louis Zukofsky, with poems by Zukofsky, Williams, Bunting, Oppen, Reznikoff, Rakosi, Rexroth, Wheelwright, among others; an essay, Sincerity and Objectification by Zukofsky, and a Symposium by Parker Tyler and Charles Henri Ford. Small chip out of fore-edge of front wrapper, very light soiling, otherwise a very good copy with a short holograph note from Robert Mueller, associate editor of Poetry magazine, laid in. 12mo, original printed wrappers. More
Venezia: Neri Pozza Editore, 1956. First edition of Montale's most celebrated collection of verse. One of 1000 copies in the edition (there were an additional 100 hors commerce copies on different paper). As new. 8vo, original printed wrappers. More
(Sherman Oaks, CA): Ninja Press, 1992. First edition, a bilingual edition. Limited to 195 copies printed in Spectrum type on Superfine Cover and bound in handmade cogon grass paper from the Philippines, signed by the poet. Very fine copy. Tall, thin folio, illustrated with drawings by the poet, original pictorial boards. More
London: Faber and Faber, (1964). First edition. One of 1500 copies printed. No equivalent American edition was produced. Abbott A23. Presentation copy, inscribed by Moore to Elizabeth Mayer on the front free endpaper: "For dear [underscored] Elizabeth Mayer / teaching me encouraging me from / her ever grateful protegée / Marianne / 1964 and 5 [sic] April 13, 1965". Moore and Mayer collaborated on translating into English Stifter's Rock Crystal, A Christmas Tale, published in 1945. Mayer (1884-1970) was a German-born American translator and editor who associated closely with Auden, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, and other writers and musicians. After the Nazis came to power Mayer and her psychiatrist husband, William, emigrated to the United States. Mayer's homes in New York City and on Long Island served as artistic salons for many émigré writers in the 1940s. With Auden Mayer translated Goethe's Italian Journey into English (1962). Mayer and Louise Bogan collaborated on translations into English of Ernst Jünger's The Glass Bees (1961), Goethe's Elective Affinities (1963), and The Sorrows of Young Werther and Novella. Auden held Mayer in high regard and the two were close for many years. Auden's "New Year Letter" is dedicated to her as is..... More
N. Y. Monroe Wheeler, (1923). First edition. With Glenway Wescott's essay, "Miss Moore's Observations", printed as a four-page leaflet, laid in as issued. Spine slightly worn, with a small piece of the wrapper detached from the top of the spine, otherwise a remarkably fine copy of this rare pamphlet, preserved in a cloth slipcase with leather label on the spine. Small 8vo, original wrappers. More