POEMS with THE GENTLE WEIGHT LIFTER

Prairie City and New York: Decker Press and Morris Gallery, 1948 and 1955. First Edition. First editions of the poet's first two books housed together in a clamshell case with leather label. POEMS in yellow cloth and fragile yellow jacket. Near fine in an easily very good and complete jacket, with light wear and minor stain. The price has been gently scored through in pencil and in the same pencil above the price is written: "19 cents." THE GENTLE WEIGHT LIFTER is in the most common form of the book: loose signatures laid into the dust jacket of the book.  Apparently only a small percentage of the run of 500 got bound. The jacket usually found toned is bright; red binder's mark on what would be pastedown, else fine. Both books inscribed to a dealer/collector in 1989. POEMS is a very scarce book, rare signed. Both books much nicer than usual. Decker Press was founded in 1940 and for nearly a decade published several titles a year including volumes by Edgar Lee Masters, August Derleth, William Everson (Brother Antonius), Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, and Louis Zukofsky, making a tiny town in Illinois a major center for poetry publishing, a venture that was ultimately and inevitably unprofitable.