Animae

Kayak Books, San Francisco, 1969. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Association copy, inscribed on the acknowledgment page (just after title page) to poet Bruce Berlind and his wife: "For Bruce and JoAnn, love from Bill, Nov 1996, Colgate." Bruce Berlind was an old friend of Merwin's, as they graduated from Princeton within a year of each other and both studied with John Berryman there. Berlind was a longtime English professor at Colgate and ran its visiting writer series. There's a good story about how Merwin and Hayden Carruth dined and drank wine together at Berlind's house while Carruth played hooky from the National Book Award ceremony. All hungover, Berlind and Merwin drove over to Carruth's place the next morning to tell him he had in fact won the award. Decorated cardboard wraps. Yellow paper pages interspersed artfully in the interior. Five drawings by Lynn Shroeder. Good to very good on account of wear/loss to spine and tail, and to the outer corner of the front wrap. Also a two-inch crease with tears at either end to the outer edge of front wrap. But an interesting association and uncommon signed. // Wood (+) River (=) Books specializes in place-based and environmental literature, with a special passion for association copies and notable inscriptions.