THE COLLECTED GREED, PARTS 1-13 - DELUXE ISSUES, SIGNED

Los Angeles & Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1984. First Editions. An attractive set of Wakoski's long poem, published in five volumes over a 16 year period. "I decided I wanted to write a long, preachy, didactic poem, using personal and trivial details, names of people, and even gossipy hearsay. I wanted to pontificate about life, to moralize, and yet somehow to write a poem which would have a nobility to it. I decided that I would write this long poem in four parts, call it GREED, and hope that it wouldn't be too controversial or difficult for John [Martin] to want to publish...I do not know if there are still more parts to follow "Part 13," which ends this book, or whether "Part 10" will ever be written. Once I had gone beyond "Part 4," I wanted an open-ended poem that I could spend the rest of my life writing if I wanted to. And I still think, in that sense, that GREED remains open-ended, even though with the completion of "Part 13" I am quite ready for a COLLECTED GREED" (preface to The Collected Greed, pp.7-9). Morrow & Cooney 27b, 69c, 101c, 145c. Each volume the Deluxe Issue: Greed, Parts One and Two is publisher John Martin's copy (one of four); Greed, Parts 3 and 4, Parts 5-7, Parts 8, 9, 11, and The Collected Greed, Parts 1-13 are all the Binder's Copies (each being one of four to six specially designated copies). Five octavo volumes (23.5cm-24.75cm); volumes 1-2 are bound in pictorial paper-covered boards, with title labels mounted to spines; volumes 3-5 in pictorial paper-covered boards and patterned cloth backstrips, with title labels mounted to spines; original paper or acetate dustjackets, as issued; [6],7-23,[1]pp; [8],9-29,[5]; [ii],[6],7-46,[6]; [8],9-50,[6]; [ii],[6],7-248,[4]pp. All volumes signed by Wakoski, with the final three volumes bearing a holograph poem tipped in. First volume has a touch of foxing to upper board edges and to right edge of textblock; Near Fine. Remaining volumes are uniformly Fine in lightly rubbed, Near Fine dustjackets.