Ashbery, John

Rivers and Mountains: Poems with: Ephemera

New York, NY, USA: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966. First Softcover Edition. Softcover. "These decibels/ Are a kind of flagellation, an entity of sound/ Into which being enters, and is apart./ Their colors on a warm February day/ Make for masses of inertia, and hips/ Prod out of the violent-seeming into a new kind/ Of demand that stumps the absolute because not new/ In the sense of the next one in an infinite series/ But, as it were, pre-existing or pre-seeming in/ Such a way as to contrast funnily with the unexpectedness/ And somehow push us all into perdition." ("The Skaters," Part I, first stanza, pg. 34) An earlier collection of poems by John Ashbery (1927-2017), the great, much-honored & highly influential American poet whose works have been canonized in the Library of America series. With twelve poems ending with the four-part "The Skaters" (quoted above), which fills about half the volume. Trade-format softcover in sewn binding, "First Edition" as stated at copyright page published simultaneously with a hardcover edition, presumed first printing though not specified as such thereon- as indicated by lack of ISBN number reference, $2.45 price printed at rear cover. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), a renowned American author, poet, film critic, editor & academician here at the University of Michigan. We found & have retained, between first & second leaf, a single sheet folded once vertically, with copy of fourth page of an unknown author's (possibly Goldstein) typewritten essay concerning the culture of shopping malls; & verso with cursive manuscript notes by Goldstein in blue ink with the underlined title "Skaters" (the poem in this volume noted & quoted above), undoubtedly a fragment of scholarship for teaching/writing, in near-fine condition with slight browning & some tiny bumps, creases at/from edges & corners. An essential Ashbery collectible in its penultimately rarest contemporary form, enriched with this most-relevant & enlightening hand-written ephemera by its distinguished former owner. In relatively quite fine condition with mild rubbing, browning, faint scratching & occasional small spot-staining to front, back covers & spine; a touch of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; mild rubbing, browning & occasional spotting to edges of text block. Interior fine-to-very-fine with very light browning to blank white inner covers & page leaves (the latter chiefly at blank margins/edges); miniscule bleeding of spot onto side-edges of a few leaves; tiny bumps at mostly lower corners of some leaves. Fine. [Item #6954]

Price: $60.00