John; James SCHUYLER. A Nest of Ninnies.

by ASHBERY

£850 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Lee Harwood’s Copy ASHBERY, John; James SCHUYLER. A Nest of Ninnies. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. 1969. 8vo. Original quarter turquoise cloth over lavender boards, spine lettered in metallic lavender, in the dust-jacket designed by James McMullan, priced $4.95 to front flap; pp. 191, [1]; some spotting to top-edge and three or four small spots to fore-edge of textblock, jacket a touch rubbed to spine tips and corners, 5-mm closed tear to upper corner of rear flap; a bright, near-fine copy in like wrapper; presentation inscription in blue ink to front free end-paper from John Ashbery to Lee Harwood, dated 5 May 1970 ( see below ). First edition, first printing, collaboratively written by Ashbery and Schuyler over the course of nearly two decades, this copy with an uncharacteristically extended presentation inscription from Ashbery to his friend and sometime lover, the English poet Lee Harwood (1939–2015). According to Ashbery, A Nest of Ninnies was conceived as an amusement during car journeys from the Hamptons to New York City. ‘[Schuyler] pulled out a pad and said, “Think of a first line.” So I did, and he thought of the second line. We proceeded along that way, gathering inspiration from the suburban countryside we were going through [...] But we never had any intention of finishing it, much less publishing it [...] There was a period of seven or eight years in which we didn’t do anything on it at all, because I never saw Jimmy while I was living in Europe’. Although the

• Printing: first
• Binding: Hardcover

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