JOHN UPDIKE'S FIRST BOOK

UPDIKE, John. The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958. Small octavo, original black and gray paper boards, original dust jacket. $950.

First edition of Updike's first book, a collection of light verse.

Updike wrote this, his first published book, while a "Talk of the Town" reporter for The New Yorker. He noted that "I began as a writer of light verse, and have tried to carry over into my serious or lyric verse something of the strictness and liveliness of the lesser form" (Poetry Foundation). Only 2000 copies of this collection of "intellectual, witty pieces on the absurdities of modern life" (Encyclopedia of Literature) were printed (Yellin, 20). First edition with code "B-H" on copyright page, in first-state dust jacket, with mention of Updike's "two small children."

A very nearly fine copy.