O'Hara, Frank

Second Avenue

New Haven, CT: Totem Press/Corinth Books, 1960. First Edition, First Printing. Staplebound. "Quips and players, seeming to vend astringency off-hours, | celebrate diced excesses and sardonics, mixing pleasures, | as if proximity were staring at the margin of a plea...." (opening stanza). Second Avenue is a long poem by American writer, poet & art critic Frank O'Hara (1926-1966), written in 1953 and published as a standalone volume in 1960. O'Hara wrote it during a period when he was deeply immersed in the New York art world and friendly with painters like Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), Larry Rivers (1923-2002) & Grace Hartigan (1922-2008). The poem is often discussed as his most "Abstract Expressionist" work as it is densely layered, gestural & resistant to linear paraphrase, much like the action paintings being made around him. Second Avenue is allusive & frequently disorienting, moving through fragments of overheard speech, art-world references, mythological allusions, and personal addresses without clear transitions. The title refers, fairly literally, to the Manhattan avenue O'Hara was living on in downtown New York City, and the poem is steeped in the texture of that neighborhood in the early '50s. It's generally considered one of his most challenging, less popularly read poems. From the collection of Richard Cupidi (b. 1945), our esteemed mate in the UK who managed the fabled Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, England for founder Bill Butler (1934-1977, the famed American-expatriate bookseller & publisher). From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Unicorn proffered & published many outstanding productions by William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), J.G. Ballard (1930-2009) et al., some of which have become the scarcest, all-but-unobtainable Beat-&-Beyond collectibles (see for example our Item No.s 8217 & 8366). After prevailing against censorious harassment efforts, Unicorn closed & Butler died in short order. Cupidi went on to found the Public House Bookshop in Brighton, which had a long & successful run but is also now closed, & he still resides there. We have been honored to obtain what Cupidi has termed "The Last Hurrah," all the remaining gems of Unicorn & Public House, including this uniquity. Staplebound Chapbook: First Edition & second printing though neither explicated as such at copyright page. A most collectible O'Hara artifact in what is likely its rarest form, with relevant association & very distinguished provenance. In relatively fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing, age-toning & spot staining to front, back covers & spine; mild rusting of staples at spine; former (original?) price tag affixed to back cover near bottom left corner; mild-to-moderate age-toning to text block. Interior fine with mild-to-moderate age-toning mostly to blank margins & fine edges of page leaves; mild spot staining near bottom fine edge of title page. Fine. [Item #8976]

Price: $80.00