In my copy of Barbara Guest's "Poems" of 1962, there is a hand written note on a pre-printed card that says "Compliments of Doubleday" and has the little anchor Doubleday logo. The card is written in blue fountain pen and says "Thank you, Ruth, for a most delightful evening--food and company. Love, Larry." I bought this book over the internet a few years ago, for the extravant price of $50.

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I read a biography of Joseph Cornell over the weekend. It is obvious to me now that he is the link between Dada and Surrealism (Duchamp, Breton, Dalí, etc...) and Pop Art. The actor Tony Curtis would bring him over boxes that he (Curtis) had made, in an obviously derivative (of Cornell) style. This struck me as quite hilarious.

A poem by Octavio Paz dedicated to Cornell, which I saw in another book on Cornell, seemed to me transparently inadequate, in that it basically paid homage by listing typical elements one might find in a Cornell box and saying how wonderful all this was. The poem was, in a sense, a variety of Kitsch, in that it invited the reader to say, "yes, how wonderful of Paz to notice how wonderful Cornell is." Of course, my reaction was exactly the opposite. Has anyone noticed how obvious Paz can be? How much better is F.O'H's poem entitled simply "Joseph Cornell." I'm sure the first time I read it I had no idea who Joseph Cornell was.