Kelly, Robert; Rothenberg, Jerome

Lunes/ Sightings

New York, NY, USA: Hawk's Well Press, 1964. First Edition. Softcover. Two collections of poetry in one volume by Robert Kelly (b. 1935), the eminent & prolific American poet associated with the Black Mountain &, most especially, Deep Image schools; & Jerome Rothenberg (1931-2024), the great American poet, translator & anthologist who pioneered & was the foremost practitioner in the field of ethnopoetics. A uniquely beautiful production crafted in Ireland for the NYC publisher, small-format softcover in sewn binding with flaps at covers, first edition, first-&-only printing though neither specified on copyright page. With tipped-in illustrations at frontispiece & throughout by Amy Mendelson (Goldin, 1926-1978), the noted American painter & art critic who was close to these poets & also had attended Black Mountain College. Between second page leaf verso (copyright page) & recto of blank third leaf, a loose sheet is present, each side printed with initialed poets' statements. Kelly's statement on his 'Lunes' collection begins: "After some years of disregard, I came back to a consideration of haiku when I was at last able to buy the (Reginald Horace) Blyth collection. Always before, & now again, I had been troubled by a softness in English haiku-imitations, a sprawl or langour that didn't seem consonant with what Blyth & others told me about the effect of haiku in Japanese." Rothenberg's statement on his 'Sightings' collection begins: "The measure of SIGHTINGS involves the creation of an equivalent area-of-silence around each phrase or succession of phrases in the poem." From the collection of Robin Eichele (b. 1941), an esteemed American poet who co-founded the Detroit Artists' Workshop with the legendary John Sinclair (1941-2024) during the 1960s, & is our good nearby friend. A jewel among Kelly/ Rothenberg collectibles, in its singularly rarest contemporary form, with distinguished & relevant provenance. Although the condition of this item, as shall be described below, is even relatively only fair-to-good, the fact that it is complete with the loose sheet & all of Mendelson's illustrations is itself a great rarity & should be taken into account: Mild rubbing, age-toning & generally faint scratching to front, back covers, spine & flaps; light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; mild-to-moderate rubbing, age-toning & occasional spotting to edges of text block. Interior fair-to-good with mild age-toning to blank inner covers & page leaves; tiny bumps & small, faint creases at corners & occasionally edges of leaves; all tipped-in illustrations (four) are loose, leaving areas of significant staining from glue that had affixed them at blank pages, blank versos of illustrations & (much less) printed rectos thereof; very slight age-toning & edge/corner wear to otherwise well-preserved illustrations. It is quite possible that the illustrations could be expertly re-affixed, in any case they, along with the entire crucially complete production (incl. statement sheet described above) are of themselves in relatively near-fine-to-fine condition. Fair-Good. [Item #7725]

Price: $45.00