Koch, Kenneth

Ko, or A Season on Earth

New York, NY, USA: Grove Press/ Evergreen Books, 1959. First Softcover Edition. Softcover. "Ko, or A Season on Earth, is the first poem of epic length and spirit to appear on the American scene in more than 30 years. Following the great comic tradition of Orlando Furioso and Don Juan, Kenneth Koch has written a poem with a subtle interweaving of plots which unfold during one spring season in Cincinnati, Tuscon, Paris, Tahiti, Pompeii, Rome, Kalamazoo, Tibet, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Rapallo. Among the principal characters are a Japanese baseball star, a neurotic financier who wishes to control all the dogs on earth, an unhappy Cockney, an English Private Eye, and an "Action Poet." The main themes are baseball, neurosis, art, and death; travel, weather, self-realization, and power; love, error, prophesy, destruction, and pleasure." (back cover) The early neo-epic poem by Kenneth Koch (1925-2002), a revered Giant among the New York School poets. Trade-format softcover in sewn binding, first softcover edition in publisher's "Evergreen Original" series- a subsidiary of James Laughlin's fabled Grove Press, which concurrently published the first hardcover edition. From the collection of Robin Eichele (b. 1941), an acclaimed American poet who co-founded the Detroit Artists' Workshop with the legendary John Sinclair (1941-2024) during 1964, & is our good nearby friend & mentor. Eichele has hand-written his ownership signature in blue ink at blank upper right margin of shorter title page/ recto front endpaper. A cornerstone collectible in the Koch canon, in its penultimately rarest contemporary form & with distinguished, relevant provenance. See our other Kenneth Koch collectibles & contributions, incl. item Nos. 5488, 7041. In relatively quite near-fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing, age-toning, mostly faint scratching & occasional spotting to front, back covers & spine; slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at/from edges & corners of same; mild-to-moderate rubbing, age-toning & spot-staining to edges of text block esp. upper edge. Interior (again relatively) fine with mild age-toning, light spot-staining to blank inner covers; very slight age-toning to page leaves (chiefly at blank margins/edges); tiny bumps at corners of a few leaves. Near Fine. [Item #7931]

Price: $50.00