National Book Award Address, March 14, 1961.
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. 4to, 4 pages, stapled as issued.
Price: $250.00