Windfalls

The third and final volume of poems to be published by Dunning before his death in Paris, 1930. A long-term opiate addict, Dunning was rarely seen in public, and only then at the busiest cafés with a glass of milk and book. His addiction caused an aversion to food, and though he was suffering from tuberculosis, Hemingway said of his death that he simply “forgot to eat.” After Rococo (a single poem), Windfalls was the release of years of poetry under a deathly susurrus. First edition, no. 106 of 500 copies (the first 25 on Japon). With a frontispiece portrait of the author by Polia Chentoff, printed by Martin Kaelin. Letter Press by Imprimerie Crété, “both of Montparnasse.” Beautifully clean throughout, with ten small pencil scores highlighting poems on the contents page, and slight printer’s shadow to the poem of p.11, Drowned. One section (from frontis to p.12) loosened off spine without damage. Front gutter cracked, the binding remaining sound. Boards lightly rubbed. Paper label on spine complete if a little rubbed. Again, I find no bibliographical records, and very little scholarship.…