Item #1131 [SIGNED] Selected Poems. James Merrill.

[SIGNED] Selected Poems

London: Chatto and Windus/The Hogarth Press, 1961. First Edition.

Octavo (8 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches; 222 x145 mm), 63, [1] pages, in red cloth, in an unclipped, illustrated dust jacket.

INSCRIBED by James Merrill on the front end paper: "To John and Herbert with / Love from Jimmy / 1962." The recipients were John Bernard Myers, publisher of the Tiber Press and founder of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York, and his companion Herbert Machiz, a theatrical director. This was the first volume of Merrill's verse to be published in the United Kingdom; there was no comparable U.S. edition of this volume.

Myers championed many New York poets of the 1950s and published early works by Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, and many others, either in separate editions or through his poetry journal Semi-Colon. One of Merrill's early poems was included in an issue of this publication. A wonderful association.

Signed copies are not often found in the market and important association copies such as this one are even more uncommon. SCARCE SIGNED.

CONDITION: Upper board slightly splayed, foxing to top edge, light toning to pages, some soiling or staining to a few pages, especially to page 32, ink notation to rear end paper. The dust jacket shows light edge wear, some darkening to the top of the lower flap, and a small nick to the top of the lower panel where it meets the flap. Very Good in a Near Fine dust jacket. Item #1131

Price: $875.00

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