PBA Galleries

[4], 23, [1] leaves. (Oblong) 15.8x24.1 cm. (6¼x9½"), Japanese stab binding with exposed sewing, pictorial wrappers. Limited to 400 copies. Designed and Printed by Steven Chayt at the Kenmore Press. Cover silk-screened from an original photograph by Judy Lane. Bound by Steven and Meryl Chayt. First Edition.

Signed by the author at the limitation statement, as issued. No. 67 of 400 copies. Billy Collins' scarce first book. Collins said of this book: "Pokerface, was a livre de luxe put together by a husband and wife who ran a hand letterpress out of their home in Los Angeles. I remember dropping in on them one morning to find the two of them busy at their labor of love. The husband was cranking out individual pages of my little book on an enormous, Dickensian-looking press while his wife sat on the floor, hippie-style, hand-stitching the covers on with a needle and thick black thread." Collins was appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003.