[Rarebooks] FS: Two INSCRIBED First Editions of John Berryman's Pulitzer Prize Winning 77 DREAM SONGS

[Charles Agvent]

BERRYMAN, John. 77 DREAM SONGS. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 
(1964). First Edition. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. INSCRIBED and 
SIGNED by the author "To Martha/with love/- -I hope you & Christina/are 
happy--/John/as from 103 - 2nd St., NE/Washington, D.C." Martha was the 
name of both Berryman's mother and daughter (born in 1962), but we do 
not know who this Martha and Christina are. Though undated, this is an 
early inscription as the Berrymans moved into the D.C. apartment above 
the poet's mother's apartment in the Fall of 1963 and stayed there until 
Berryman bought his first house, in Minneapolis, in September 1964. The 
book was published in April 1964 and awarded the Pulitzer in May 1965. 
Near Fine in a Fine, later printing dustwrapper. (#006600)        $2,750.00

See an image of this inscription here:

http://home.ptd.net/~chagvent/006600.jpg
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BERRYMAN, John. 77 DREAM SONGS. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 
(1964). First Edition. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. INSCRIBED and 
SIGNED by Berryman with what amounts to a short letter: "To Anne/and to 
Chis--if, as Kate & I/hope without knowing anything really/about it, you 
have got together/again. We were bitterly sorry to/hear--from William, 
not in the least/as gossip--of your separation./Whatever is happening or 
does,let/me wish you a restoration of the/happiness I so admired in you 
on/Mr. Frost's last summer./Affectionately/John/The Abbott 
Hospital/Minneapolis 3,Minn./22 April '64." The book was published in 
April 1964 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in May 1965. The 
recipients--Anne and Chis--are both referred to in Dream Song 38, 
contained in this volume, a poem about Robert Frost's death. The Abbott 
Hospital was a place of refuge for Berryman when overwhelmed by his 
alcoholism. "In hospitals he found his society," Saul Bellow wrote in 
his introduction to RECOVERY, Berryman's only novel. "University 
colleagues were often more philistine, less tolerant of poets than were 
alcoholics or suicidal girls." Cloth a bit faded and lightly spotted. 
Dustwrapper soiled with small chips at the spine tips. Very Good in a 
Very Good dustwrapper. (#011042)        $7,500.00

See an image of this inscription here:

http://home.ptd.net/~chagvent/011042.jpg

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