Kenny's. Twenty poems for a lost tavern. Foreword by William Murray

Iowa City: Windhover Press, [1970]. Edition limited to 250 copies, 8vo, pp. [48]; original black cloth-backed blue paper-covered boards lettered in gilt on the upper cover; some fading at the bottom of the upper boards, else near fine. From the library of Kim Merker. The last paragraph of Murray's Foreword on p. [9] has been excised as the result of a legal action by Kenny's landlady - see below. Among the contributing poets are Robert Dana, George P. Elliott, Paul Engle, Anselm Hollo, Donald Justice, Philip Levine, William Stafford, Mark Strand, James Tate, and others. "Kenny's was a wonderful tavern in Iowa City where, when I first came here, all of the Workshop people went." The libelous line which Merker was obliged to remove, concerned the clientele at Kenny's as seen through the eyes of the landlady. Berger, Printing & the Mind of Merker, 41: "Each copy was issued with a paper band (not present here) around the book saying: 'For legal reasons a paragraph has been excised from the introduction.' Pages 9/10 have a rectangular paragraph sliced neatly out'." In most copies this excised text was pasted over with Curtis Rag paper. In this - Merker's copy - there is no Curtis Rag, only the hole. Item #61777

Price: $65.00