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1959-1980. An archive of correspondence spanning Kinnell's first two decades with Houghton Mifflin and including an author questionnaire (1959) and 14+ pieces of correspondence (one autograph letter signed; one typed letter signed; two autograph notes signed; 5 typed notes signed; 4 autograph postcards signed; and one typed postcard signed). The author questionnaire is incompletely but rather amusingly filled out (How much do you revise? "Much."; Did you encounter any difficulties while writing it? "!"). Kinnell does provide biographical information and a list of favorite authors, as well as an ample list of people who may be interested in his first book, which at this point seems to have been titled "Seven Streams." Next there is a brief publisher's biography (1963), with a hand-written Kinnell postscript ("I'm ashamed to say I don't believe anything much has happened to me since this was written"); a 5-page handwritten list of chosen recipients (Hayden Carruth, Robert Bly, Philip Roth, W.S. Merwin, Richard Eberhart, etc.) for complimentary copies of his 1966 novel Black Light; and a 1968 blurb for Charles Bell's The Half Gods. There are two typed postcards signed from Louis Untermeyer, regarding Body Rags (1967) and The Book of Nightmares (1971); there is an autograph postcard signed from Richard Howard (1971) saying he'll be reviewing the book [Body Rags] for The Partisan Review. Many of the later notes and postcards are requests that photos of Kinnell be sent out. Also included is a copy of Kinnell's The Fundamental Project of Technology, which was presented as the Phi Beta Kappa Poem during Harvard's Commencement Week, 1983; it contains a handwritten correction to a typo. Lastly, there are a handful of copies of retained letters and publisher's memos. Kinnell's 1982 collection, Selected Poems, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and was included in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon. Several of Kinnell's pages bear publisher's notations, mostly indicating tasks completed; the lot is near fine. [#036706] $2,500

Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1977. Advance Uncorrected Proof. Very Good in wrappers. [#710634] $20