Antiworlds and The Fifth Ace

Voznesensky, Andrei. Antiworlds and The Fifth Ace. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1967. First Edition, First Printing.

Octavo (9 x 6 1/4 inches; 227 x 158 mm), xxiii, [1], 296 pages, in black cloth, titles to spine in pink and red, pink topstain, in an illustrated, unclipped dust jacket.

SIGNED by Andrei Voznesensky (1933-2010) in black marker across the title page. First edition in English of this collection of the Russian poet's work, edited by Patricia Blake and Max Hayward, with an introduction by W.H. Auden, and featuring translations by Auden, Jean Garrigue, Hayward, Stanley Kunitz, Stanley Moss, William Jay Smith, and Richard Wilbur. This is a bilingual edition, with the poems in Russian and English.

Two pieces of ephemera are laid in: a card announcing a reading by Voznesensky at the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street YM-YWHA, dated November 14 (no year given) and inscribed by Voznesensky "For Riva." The other is a folded program for an appearance by Voznesensky at another reading, also at the Poetry Center, in 1991, with fellow reader Allen Ginsberg.

This edition contains a final section of poems called The Fifth Ace (as in the title of the book) and should not be confused with other "Antiworlds" editions lacking The Fifth Ace.

While copies signed by the translators are readily available in the market, copies signed by Voznesensky are far from common. SCARCE SIGNED.

CONDITION: Slight rubbing to cloth, internally clean, bright, and unmarked. Light fading to spine of dust jacket, a bit of soiling to the lower panel. Overall, a Near Fine copy.