Two First Editions by Walter Abish
Abish, Walter. Alphabetical Africa. New Directions, 1974 (1st Ed., 1st Printing). Hardbound. Jacket photo by Cecile Abish. $50.
Abish, Walter. Minds Meet. New Directions, 1975 (1st Ed., 1st Printing). Hardbound. Jacket photo of a work by Melanie Yushkevich. $45.
Experimentalist Abish's first and second books: Alphabetical Africa includes oulipian exercises with the letter 'A' and Minds Meet imagines Marcel Proust in Albuquerque. Both feature jacket design by Gertrude Huston ('Her covers suggested the influence of Alvin Lustig but tended more toward the whimsical,' notes Ian S. MacNiven), who met New Directions founder James Laughlin at a Halloween party in 1945 and would eventually marry him in 1990, twelve years after she ended her regular work with the company due to clashes over the design of H.D.'s End to Torment: A Memoir of Ezra Pound.
Both books have tight spines with only the very subtlest of leans. Both have clean, unmarked interiors and no other notable shelf-wear. Alphabetical Africa's jacket has a small label obscuring the price to the front flap, but no other wear to either jacket. Featured Rare & Collectible.
