Poems/Prints. Poems by Kenneth Koch. Prints by Nell Blaine

New York: Editions of The Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 1953. First edition of Koch's scarce first book, illustrated with four original linoleum cuts by Nell Blaine, who designed the cover, typography and decorations for the book. One of 300 numbered copies (the entire edition). The book was not issued signed by either poet or artist; but in this copy, Nell Blaine has signed and dated each of the three large mounted prints in the bottom margin. In addition to these large prints, there is one small linoleum cut and five black & white illustrations. Although his reputation as a professor at Columbia, indeed, as the most inspired teacher of poetry of his generation ("Kenneth Koch / could teach a golf ball / how to write pantoums" - Schuyler), has tended to overshadow his reputation as a poet, Koch's poetry deserves a wider audience. As Ashbery assessed it: Koch's poetry "gives you the impression that you are leading an interesting life: going to parties and meeting interesting people, falling in love, going for rides in the country and to public swimming pools, eating in the best restaurants and going to movies and the theater in the afternoons. By comparison, most other modern poetry makes me feel as if I were living in a small midwestern university town." - quoted in David Lehman's The Last Avant-Garde, p. 210. A very fine copy, and rare in such beautiful condition, with none of the offsetting and staining that so often mars this book. 4to, original illustrated card wrappers, stapled. A very fine copy, and rare in such beautiful condition, with none of the offsetting and staining that so often mars this book.