Ommateum, with Doxology

Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1955. First edition. 49 pp. Salmon cloth, lettered in gilt on the front board and the spine, with the dust jacket. Spine a little faded; the jacket is slightly chipped along the top edge with a closed tear at the spine crease and the head of the spine, some rubbing, and the date "1955" written on the front panel. Inscribed on the half-title, "Birthday greetings / on / his / 36th / for / Richard Howard / with admiration / A.R. Ammons / Oct. 9, 1965." An excellent association; Howard wrote one of the first major considerations of Ammons' work in Triquarterly in 1966, and he later pronounced "Ammons is our Lucretius, swerving and sideswiping his way into the nature of things." The book itself is quite rare; it was published with a vanity press, and, as Ammons observed, "it was forgotten about while I was on a four-day business trip to Nashville." Five years later a grand total of 16 copies had been sold. Now housed in a custom clamshell box.