Spare Parts
Athens, Greece: Vassily Papachrysanthou/A New View Book, 1966. 1st Edition. Folio, publisher's illustrated paper-covered boards, illustrated endpapers, printed on multicolored paper stocks.
First edition of leading American surrealist poet Charles Henri Ford’s poem posters, inscribed by him to 20th-century American composer Ned Rorem. Produced in Athens on an offset lithograph press, the pop art inspired posters embody Ford's concept "Ideas in the Air," collaging printed language from magazines with his own original images and paste-up poems. Ford is best known for his little magazine of the 1940s, View, which introduced surrealism to an American audience, and was a platform for European émigre artists and underground figures such as Joseph Cornell, Randall Jarrell, and Allen Ginsberg. Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Ned Rorem, hailed as "the world's best composer of art songs," is known for his series of published diaries offering candid insights into his personal life, creative development, friendships and love affairs with prominent cultural figures. He had a special affinity for poetry, setting many poems by contemporaries and friends to music, and was featured in Ford's 1967 short film "Poem Posters," produced a year after the present work was published. Inscribed to half-title: "For Ned / with more than spare Love / Charles Henri / 28 Nov '88," with Rorem’s initialed correction "1989" in red marker. Number 569 of 850 numbered copies, from a total edition of 950. Lacking scarce original dust jacket. Some rubbing to extremities, with approximately 1.5 inch abrasion to tail of spine. Very good, with an excellent presentation-association inscription. Item #10422
$800.00