Padgett, Ron.

Summer Balloons.

[Ron Padgett], [1960]. Item #504

Saddle-stitched wrappers. Padgett’s first published work was printed by a local printer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in an edition of 100 copies. As noted by our colleague James Jaffe, Padgett recounts his first experience with the emotions and logistics of publishing at scale:

“Summer Balloons was intended as a gift for a girl I had a big crush on, in the spring of 1960, our final semester of high school. I took the text to a local job printer, a man named Casebeer, who had an offset press in his garage. I gave him the specs and asked him to print a small number, perhaps 5 or 10 copies. He told me that it would cost virtually the same to print, say, 100. So I did. I gave the girl some copies, plus a few to friends (Ted, Joe, and Dick) and to a few penpal poets. I don’t know what happened to the rest. Ted went around destroying his first pamphlet [A Lily for My Love] because he was deeply embarrassed by its mawkish sentimentality. I never destroyed Summer Balloons, but whenever I glance at it I have to forgive myself for having printed it. I was just a kid." (Many Happy Returns).

Though not called for, signed by the poet. Fine.

Price: $1,750.00