The Double Dream of Spring [Inscribed to Howard Moss]

New York: Dutton, 1970. First edition. First printing. Inscribed to Howard Moss, and signed in full by the poet. Small octavo; cloth-backed boards; 95 pp. Very Good or better in unclipped original dust jacket, also very good with minor wear at the corners. Housed in custom cloth clamshell case with leather label.

A nice association copy and a particularly early one, dated in January of 1970 (We have handled a copy inscribed to Hilton Kramer, and seen others inscribed on the same date; The Gotham Book Mart publication party was held a month later on 2/9/70.) The poet's important fourth collection with some of his finest poems: including what is likely his most anthologized poem, "Soonest Mended", as well as "Decoy", "Sunrise in Suburbia", "Evening in the Country", the long poem "Fragment", and "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape."

Howard Moss was poetry editor of the NEW YORKER from 1950 until his death in 1987. It is interesting that Ashbery's first poem to be published in the NEW YORKER was in 1972, a poem that would appear in his next book SELF-PORTRAIT IN A CONVEX MIRROR which would win the trifecta of major awards: Pulitzer, NBA and NBCC. Moss himself would win the 1972 National Book Award and in 1987 the Lenore Marshall/Nation Prize for his own poetry.