AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED; Written to Mrs. Fenn

Nash, Ogden

Published by Author, Not identified, 1940

SIGNED twice by the Author-Poet in black ink: once in block letters & once in script; 8vo (8" x 10"), single sheet neatly folded twice leaving six compartments; contents: a thank you letter with original poem about Nash as a book "browser," undated [ca. May 23?, 1940], no location specified, no watermark, & without envelope. For lovers of humorous verse, no versifier is better than Ogden Nash. This fulsome letter includees his seven-line poem entitled "No Thanks, I'm Just Looking Around," evidently droll reflections about the poet's visit as a "Browser" to a bookstore presided over by a "Mrs. Fenn" (not identified, though possibly at Marshall Field & Company, Chicago, or the Glencoe Bookshop in Illinois where the owner of this letter lived). Frederic Ogden Nash (1902-1971) was a prolific and highly popular American poet best known for effusions of light verse. With his unconventional and sometimes outrageous rhyming schemes, Nash was widely applauded as the country's best-known creator of humorous poetry. This engaging and very frameable one-page letter with Excellent Content was apparently written to a book store proprietor (Mrs. Fenn)--where Nash had recently browsed, may well have given a reading following the publication of his selected verse in The Face Is Familiar (1940); whereupon, as a weary and soiled traveler, he had been offered hospitality that included a much needed bath. The experience prompted Nash to write this engaging letter and humorous poem about his gratitude to Mrs. Fenn for her courtesies rendered despite his behavior as an aisle-clogging and dismissive book "browser." He also extends to her a reciprocal offer of hospitality should she visit. This letter was discovered in a copy of The Face is Familiar / The Selected Verse of Ogden Nash (Little, Brown and Company, 1940) where it caused offset to a front flyleaf--hence our provisional dating to circa 1940. This volume was the first collected edition of the author's work, with 31 poems not previously published in book form. We find no mention of this poem in Douglas Parker's biography (2005), but the author notes that for 1939 and 1940, Nash failed to record any of his poems, though published "fifty" in magazines during that period. Condition: Very Good overall with clear penmanship, neat folds, very slight age-toning to paper, some wear and light wrinkling, straightened dogear on upper right of page. Verso blank. Seller Inventory # 4806

Bibliographic Details

Title: AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED; Written to Mrs. Fenn
Publisher: Author, Not identified
Publication Date: 1940
Condition: Very Good
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: Original.