Orbit by Van Doren, Mark - 1973

Cambridge, MA: Pomegranate Press, 1973. Klopp, Karyl. Folio broadside. One of fifty copies. Signed by Karyl Klopp, proprietor of the press. A twenty-five-line poem by Mark Van Doren, beautifully printed on cream-colored paper and featuring an illustration by Karyl Klopp beside the text. Van Doren's long career as a poet and writer included a job teaching at Columbia, where two of his students were Allen Ginsberg and the poet-monk Thomas Merton. He was also the father of Charles Van Doren, who gained fame in the mid-1950s as one of the contestants on the rigged TV game show Twenty-One, upon which the 1994 movie Quiz Show was based. The Pomegranate Press was known for publishing the works of some of the leading Beat poets of the day, including Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and Robert Bly. This piece, mounted on cardboard, comes in a simple wooden frame that measures 21 1/2 by 15 1/2 inches. Paper backing on frame torn at top, else fine.