AMMONS, Archibald Randolph (1926-2001). Ommateum with Doxology. Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1955.
8vo. Original gilt-lettered salmon cloth; dust jacket (light spotting to panels, a few tiny chips at spine ends). Provenance: Robert Morgan (b. 1944), American poet and novelist (recipient of inscription); David Currey (typed letter of provenance laid in: "I published both Ammons and Morgan in Apple, the poetry 'little magazine' I edited and published from Springfield, Illinois from 1967 until 1976. Ammons' poem "Virtu" appeared on the first page of the first issue, and my "recommendations" of his 1965 long poem Tape for the Turn of the Year closed the issue").
FIRST EDITION of the author's National Book Award-winning first book. Ommateum was reportedly published in a run of 300 copies by vanity press publisher Dorrance; according to a 1996 Paris Review article, just 16 copies were sold in the five years after publication, with two-thirds of the run destroyed.
INSCRIBED BY AMMONS TO ANOTHER POET: "For Bob Morgan, thanks for your poems- Archie, Christmas '71." Robert Morgan and Ammons were both on staff at Cornell University for more than 20 years. Ammons' poem "Measure," from his 1975 collection Diversifications, is dedicated "for Robert Morgan." Morgan's novel Gap Creek was a New York Times bestseller.
This lot is located in Chicago.
