Ashbery above all, who began everything eight years ago with his acknowledgment of the Book of the Years. Also: Aichinger, author of “An den Grenzen entlang,” with its wind from the west, which we wish to translate for The Minutes. Until we have the rights, an original preview (from the Walser number of Du, Oktober 2002): “Ostwarts weht der Wind, westwärts schweift der Blick,” hatte auch Robert Walser konstatiert, unberührt davon, ob der Wind tatsächlich vom Westen kam und die Wiener Hausberge Rax und Schneeberg im Osten, von Biel her gesehen, den schweifenden Blick ermutigten oder nicht.” At right, the first edition of Aichinger’s first book, near the top of our Wunschliste for a future catalog: can anyone tell us who designed the jacket (click to enlarge)? The neglected masterpiece, translated as Herod’s Children (1963), is the best candidate for a Walserian revival (nota bene, NYRB Classics) in this time of greater hope.
Among the As in the first catalog will be a number of Ashberys, one acknowledged masterpiece after another. Among others (Some Trees, The Double Dream of Spring, Wakefulness, As Umbrellas Follow Rain, Your Name Here, and, above even the below, an ARC of Flow Chart), an autographed Three Poems, arguably the Poem of the Years. In what other century did the greatest book of poetry appear the same year as the greatest book of prose?
These are the kinds of answers A will be asking.
