The Love Poems of Kenneth Patchen

Tight, square spine. Clean, unmarked interior. There are some areas of toning, light rubbing, and light edge-wear to the wraps. 'The words on the cover were the most important words in the book,' said Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who founded City Lights' Pocket Poet Series and designed most of its early covers while working out of his painting studio in San Francisco's Hunter's Point shipyard. Patchen had been a huge influence on Ferlinghetti, and this collection of poems celebrating the author's longtime muse, Miriam, is the second of his books the publisher chose to include in Pocket Poets (the first was Poems of Humor & Protest). The inspiration for the iconic series-wide design, which employs the oddly monumental typeface, Albertus, also came from Patchen, via his 1945 book, An Astonished Eye Looks Out of the Air. Designed by modernist architect Kemper Nomland, Jr., An Astonished Eye was first published by Untide Press, which was operated by William Everson (Brother Antoninus) out of Civilian Public Services Camp 56 ('Camp Angel'), the World War II conscientious objectors camp located in coastal Oregon. 48 pp.