MYSTERY; PAX number 9

NY, 1959. First Edition. Broadside, (12 x 18 in) printed in pink and black on thin paper, folded into quarters, a fine copy. Scarce. Inscribed by the author to poet and editor William Claire: "For William from One Claire to Another -" Bob Lax, editor of the Kerouac and other issues of PAX, was Thomas Merton's number one friend who left the New Yorker to join a circus troupe, and ended up living(almost more monastically than Merton) in Greece for many years. A convert to Roman Catholicism, the American poet Robert Lax (1915-2000), was a friend of of the famous Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton. A student of Mark Van Doren, he and Thomas Merton were also influenced by their friend Ad Reinhardt. In his later years Robert Lax chose to live as a hermit on the island of Patmos in Greece where, in a quest for simplicity, he became a leading figure in literary minimalism. (Inventory #: 51401)