Climbing to Monfumo
Kobe, Japan: Ikuta Press, 1977. Octavo. Item #029105
47 pages. Besides the book being inscribed to Eva La Gallienne, it includes the author's long letter to her reminiscing of her appearing in "The Royal Family", he notes a mutual friend, Jay Hildreth, who hoped with her to make an opera of Ibsen's "The Lady from the Sea". He notes that in the previous year he had sent her his poem "Climbing to Monfumo", which he had originally written in 1935 in Asolo but did not have the courage to show it to anyone. When he finally showed it to Mrs. Iida, who runs the Ikuta Press, she asked if it could be included in her annual anthology to which he was a frequent contributor. All of this led to the book retaining the poem as the title. He calls it his golden wedding book since his first poems had been published in 1927. He refers to the poem "Kamiyo" which "the printers loused up, so I enclose a xerox of the poem as it should be". A comparison of the two shows that the printers changed the phrasing by poor typography. He signs it Orphan (this was a reminder that he had no record of who his parents were). His early career was as reference librarian at NYPL from 1925-1946. He had received the Yale Younger Poets awarded in 1927 and he was an early defender of Gertrude Stein who he became her companion in her 1934 trip to New York City. (Their correspondence is at Yale University). He saw Nijinsky, Pavlova, and Garbo. He moved to Japan and followed his fascination with No drama. He helped translate Kadensho (the secret teachings on No performance". He became dedicated to Shinto and dropped his U.S. citizenship while becoming a citizen of Japan. His papers are at Columbia Universities' Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Bound in light olive green cloth, spine lettering gilt, upper board a bit warped, most likely from the letter laid in, A very nice copy in orange printed dust jacket with just a bit of fading to spine.
Price: $225.00