Between the Covers

A collection of 28 books from the library of poet and playwright Rochelle Owens. The books include 19 volumes of poetry, six of plays, one novel, a translation, and an anthology of plays edited by her. All of the books are Signed by Owens, sometime accompanied by drawings, and with 14 of the book also noted in her hand that they are her "author's copies." Overall near fine with light general wear.

Owens attended the New School briefly before becoming enmeshed in the Greenwich Village poetry scene and the ethnopoetics movement, with some of her first published poems appearing in Amiri Baraka’s little magazine *Yugen*. She published her first book, *Not Be Essence That Cannot Be*, in 1961 and a short time after married its publisher, fellow poet George Economou. Later she joined and became an active member of the St. Marks Poetry Project. Owens was also a pioneer in experimental theatre with her Obie Award-winning play *Futz*, which is cited as a foundational work of the American avant-garde. She received a Guggeheim Fellowship in 1971 allowing her to continue her work in both poetry and drama, as well as a translator and editor.

Among the books in this group is Owens' own copy of her first book, *Not Be Essence That Cannot Be*; her published copy of the award-winning play *Futz and What Came After: Five Plays*; and the rare and hastily printed, *Anthropologists at a Dinner Party*, which states in its limitation page, "Just a few copies comprise this spontaneous edition," and which *OCLC* locates only two copies.

An important collection of books from the personal copy of an influential poet and playwright.

Item #447553