O’Hara, Frank, [Jim Dine, illustrator], Arion Press

Arion Press 1990 Limited/Numbered Signed Edition, Folio 13" - 23" tall

A prominent player in the New York School of poetry, Biotherm is Frank O'Hara's (1926-1966) jagged, free verse, "last long poem" written before his death. Begun in August 1961, said it started only as a small birthday poem to fellow poet Bill Berkson, but he simply wrote until he decided to stop. The poem expanded to expound on other friends, love, the jaggedness of life in New York, art, food, and myriad topics, finally concluding in January 1962.

Artist Jim Dine was an acquaintance of O'Hara, a frequent collaborator with Arion Press, and suggested publishing Biotherm to Andrew Hoyem, press founder. Dine painted 42 monochrome illustrations as loose and unbounded as O'Hara's poem.

Designing and setting Biotherm were typographic challenges, as much of the poem is structureless, with text 'exploded' into groups and lines. Jim Dine painted over the text sheet proofs to incorporate his art with the text on the page.

This 32nd book from Arion Press consists of unbound 22" H. x 15" W. sheets laid loose in a 22 5/8" H. x 15 5/8" W. clamshell portfolio of thin red cloth over boards. Has all 42 required sheets of poetry and illustrations, plus a half-title sheet. Copy 102 of a limited edition of 150 standard copies numbered and signed by Jim Dine. Although the standard edition is comprised of 42 sheets in monochrome, one sheet hand colored by the artist and protected by a tissue guard. In Arion Press catalogs, the full description does not mention this hand colored sheet, but the concise line item in 1990s catalogs contains "42 lithographs by Jim Dine, one hand-colored..." The "hand-colored" mention disappears from later catalogs. All sheets are English T. H. Saunders mouldmade, watermarked Waterford paper, images lithographed by Phelps-Schaefer, then text overprinted letterpress in Spectrum types by Arion Press.

A recessed pocket in the clamshell portfolio houses the accompanying volume Companion To Biotherm (for Bill Berkson) : The Last Long Poem of the Late Frank O'Hara (1926-1966). 'Companion' contains Bill Berkson's essay Air and Such, explaining Biotherm and O'Hara's writing. Also included is Berksons quite useful Glossary of Notes on Incidental References, Quotations, and Allusions in Order of Appearance in the Poem. Andrew Hoyem contributed a Publisher's Note detailing the motivations for publishing Biotherm, incorporating Dine's illustrations, and detail about the production of the edition. This large 8vo book is 11" x 7 1/2", saddle stiched into stiff wraps, umpaginated, and 24 pp. Arion Press' meeting the typographic and artistic challenges produced what may be the best exposition of a Frank O'Hara poem.

The clamshell portfolio has faint, small waterspots to the front. The front board has a very slight concave dish.

The lithographed, printed sheets and accompanying book are clean and in Fine condition, in a clamshell portfolio that's about Near Fine.