Two Chester Kallman Titles, Including a Libretto Signed by W. H. Auden

To include:

Chester Kallman; Rene Bouche, illus. AN ELEGY. New York City: Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, distributed by The Gotham Book Mart, 1951. First edition; one of 500 copies. Stapled booklet in illustrated card wraps. 8vo; (8) total leaves. Inscribed by Kallman to Alan (likely Alan Ansen who worked as a secretary and assistant to W. H. Auden): "To Alan / Pompes Funèbries / from / Iselia(?), paese d'amor / Chester." (Wraps with toning, edge wear, light creasing, a few small spots/marks, and a label pasted to the front cover; inside front cover with offsetting likely from a document once laid in loose; interior with occasional light creasing and grime, and scattered foxing. Good to very good.)

W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman (libretto); Igor Stravinsky (music). THE RAKE'S PROGRESS OPERA IN THREE ACTS. New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1951. Stapled booklet in plain printed wraps. 8vo; 60pp. With "W. H. Auden" crossed out on the cover and Auden's faint signature in pencil below. Text only (no musical score). (Wraps with toning, light edge wear, evidence of a label removed from the front cover, and a small tear above Kallman's name; staples rusted; light creasing and edge toning, and a pin hole at the top throughout; a clean interior with rare spots of foxing. Very good.)

8 x 5 in.; 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in.

Chester Kallman and W. H. Auden were poets and longtime friends. They wrote numerous libretti together over several decades.