JAMES MERRILL | YÁNNINA. NEW YORK: THE PHOENIX BOOKSHOP, 1972

JAMES MERRILL

YÁNNINA. NEW YORK: THE PHOENIX BOOKSHOP, 1972

Unbound sheets (5 x 7 1/8 in.; 127 x 181 mm) stapled in upper left corner.

PROVENANCE

Peter Hooten (presentation inscription)

LITERATURE

Hammer pp. 20, 43–44, 1790; Hagstrom/Morgan A28

CATALOGUE NOTE

Presentation copy of a set of unbound sheets for the first edition of Merrill's 1972 poem, inscribed on the half-title, "for Peter Hooten: an armchair tour of [Yánnina] — Bon Voyage & love from the author, JM. Stonington 1983"

This chapbook was issued in an edition of 26 lettered copies and 100 numbered and signed copies. The present set of sheets is unnumbered.

During 1982–84 "Merrill fell in love for the last time. Peter Hooten, a young movie actor, made sure that Merrill wouldn't go gently into his old age." "In the 1980s and 1990s Merrill's life revolved around Peter Hooten; and it was Hooten he wanted with him at the end" (Hammer).