"I CAN THINK OF NOTHING THAT WOULD FIT THE DEBT I HAVE TO HIS CONSPECTUS OF HISTORY AND ART"

MOORE, Marianne. A Marianne Moore Reader. New York: Viking Press, 1961. Octavo, original orange cloth, original dust jacket. $750.

First edition of this collection of Moore’s best poetry and prose, presentation copy warmly inscribed to Professor Henry Noss: "For Professor Henry Noss. I can think of nothing that would fit the debt I have to his conspectus of History and Art. Marianne Moore, April 6, 1964." A clipping of a poem that appeared in The New Yorker in 1964, dedicated in part to Noss, has been mounted to the front pastedown.

Marianne Moore's "achievement remains unique within the modern movement… As spokeswoman for 'literalists of the imagination' and creator of 'imaginary gardens with real toads in them,' she is likely to be long celebrated as the founder of a woman's poetry" (Hamilton, 362). Tipped to the front pastedown is a clipping from page 52 of the April 18, 1964 issue of The New Yorker, Moore's poem "An Expedient—Leonardo Da Vinci's (and a Query)" which Moore dedicated "with thanks to Sir Kenneth Clark, Dr. Henry W. Noss, Edward MacCurdy, and Irma A. Richter." Presumably Moore presented this copy of A Marianne Moore Reader to Professor Noss as a token of thanks for his role in inspiring her poem. With two errata leaves laid in.

Some offsetting at half title from laid-in errata leaves, otherwise book clean and fine, price-clipped original dust jacket with some edge-wear and sunning to spine, very good. A desirable inscribed presentation copy.