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Rococo

Ralph Cheever Dunning
Howard Simon, illustrator

Published Paris: Edward W. Titus, 1926

22pp.; 22.7 x 13.2 cm. Original blue-grey three-quarter boards lettered in gold up a white parchment spine. Blue paper label printed in black to front.

Dunning’s second book, published many years after his first, Hyllus (1910). An opium addict from Detroit who lived in Paris from 1905, Dunning (1878-1930) received recognition for his work when “The Four Winds” appeared in Harriet Monroe’s Poetry at Ezra Pound’s instigation, but working with Victorian verse-form received little praise from a milieu trained 15 years on vers libre.

The first book from Edward Titus’s Black Manikin Press, no. 418 of 500 copies. Meant to be signed by both poet and artist, this copy as most is signed only by Simon beneath the first plate. Fading and a little spotting to boards, light bump to top corner, otherwise a very nice copy internally fine.