Elmslie, Kenward

Motor Disturbance

New York, NY: Frank O'Hara Foundation / Columbia University Press, 1971. First Trade Softcover Edition. Softcover. Signed (Twice) & Inscribed by Kenward Elmslie to Ken & Ann Mikolowski, close friends of Elmslie's & founders of Detroit's "Alternative Press," publishers of many Beat/New York School/Black Mountain-related authors. "O peruser...These poems are good. In fact, very good. Truthfully, The Blurb finds them excellent. Some, superb. Others, less so...As for what the poems are like: The Blurb feels that his dusty copy often stops a reader from going on to the real thing, the book. Try one: little to lose; if you like it, a gain. How about "Girl Machine." Note its rich aridity; its sonorities: clattering tap shoes of chorus girls; how the words form and reform...'Be direct. It is the only way.' A functional idea, one that works, in poetry, and elsewhere. In haste, The Blurb." (from back cover). In 1971, Kenward Elmslie was in his prime, and arguably at his best. In the same year, he saw the publication of "Circus Nerves" and this book, the 1971 Frank O'Hara Award Winner in Poetry, "Motor Disturbance." Elmslie, a poet often associated with the "New York School of Poets," was a contemporary of Frank O'Hara, Joe Brainard, Ron Padgett, et al., and regardless of critical assumption, this gathering of minds proved a fruitful confluence for all involved. Although published by the Frank O'Hara Foundation/Columbia University Press, this Elmslie title was distributed by Ron Padgett & Anne Waldman's Full Court Press. Signed & inscribed to Ken & Ann Mikolowski, close friends of Kenward Elmslie & founders of Detroit's visionary "Alternative Press," publishers of many Beat/New York School/Black Mountain-related authors. Inscription on half-title page reads: (in doodling, block letter format) "for K + A / "June put a (illegible) / on bathroom scales" / Love, / Kenward / on / Joe's B.Day / March 11, 1995." This sentimental, elegiac inscription is of essential importance, as Elmslie reflects on the birth & death of his dear friend Joe Brainard, who had died in 1994 and would have turned 53 on the day Elmslie signed this book: March 11, 1995. A second Elmslie signature lies on the title page, and reads: "Kenward Elmslie" in thin black felt pen ink. Book in fine condition with only slight rubbing to front, back covers; horizontal crease running through length of cover nearest-spine edge from apparent use, as Mikolowski would have avidly read this title given its accolades; slight shelf-wear to all fine-edges; minute chipping, tiny bumps at all corners of front cover; minor white scuffs near rightmost fine-edge of front cover; two minor spots near leftmost fine-edge of back cover; small circular price sticker from former bookseller on back cover at upper right-hand corner; Full Court Press distribution sticker at center-middle above bottom fine-edge. Fine. [Item #2832]

Price: $100.00 save 20% $80.00