Description
For sale: a rare and exceptional first hardcover edition, first printing of Midpoint by John Updike in an archival wrap. First Edition stated, 1969 Knopf. First Printing, with no subsequent printing and 1969 on both title and copyright pages.
The book is in Near Fine condition with clean, bright, cloth boards with and strong title gilt on a square spine and author’s name on front board. Also with a tight binding, no spine tilt, lightly rubbed spine ends, clean top stain, while the deckled side and bottom edges are surprising clean and bright. Also with mild edge wear, and lightly rubbed corners. The interior of the book is also in Near Fine condition with no marks, inscriptions or other signs of ownership. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and bright.
The dust jacket is In Near Fine condition with mild surface and edge wear. Dust jacket is first state with a $4.50 price on the front flap, and 4/69 date on the rear flap. Looks great in a Brodart archival wrap.
In the boldly eclectic title poem of his collection, John Updike employs the meters of Dante, Spenser, Pope, Whitman, and Pound, as well as the pictographic tactics of concrete poetry, to take an inventory of his life at the end of his thirty-fifth year—at midpoint.
