The Fireproof Floors of Witley Court. English Songs and Dances by James Schuyler

Newark, West Burke, Vermont: The Janus Press, (1976). First edition. Limited to 150 numbered copies printed, torn, cut, and bound by Claire Van Vliet at the Janus Press on and out of Kozu, Fabriano and Canson paper; not issued signed. Presentation copy, and copy number 3, inscribed by Schuyler to his friend Jane Freilicher and her husband Joe Hazan soon after receiving the author's copies of the book: "Jane [Freilicher] & Joe [Hazan] from Jimmy 12/17/75". Freilicher was the close friend, a confidante and a muse, of the group of poets called the New York School that included Schuyler, Ashbery, O'Hara and Koch. In 1952, Schuyler wrote Presenting Jane, a play for the Poet's Theater in Cambridge, MA, which was also filmed (the film was never completed and is now lost). In one scene from the film, Freilicher appeared to walk on water, a sign of the great love and esteem Schuyler and his fellow poets felt for her. Freilicher illustrated Schuyler's novel What's For Dinner? (Black Sparrow Press, 1978). One of Schuyler's scarcest books owing to the fact that most of the edition went to subscribers of the press, with the result that comparatively few copies of this delightful book have been available for collectors of the poet. Fine copy. 8vo, illustrated with architectural cut-out endpapers fashioned after the topiary gardens at Levens Hall, Westmorland, England, original orange decorated wrappers. Fine copy.