“What you have in your hands is a kind of thought experiment. It proffers the idea that a radical, secret gesture of poetic mourning and love was carried out by Kenneth Koch in memory of his close friend Frank O’Hara. I present the hypothesis as my own very personal expression of homage for the two great poets. The proposal I set forward here, nevertheless, is likely to make some readers annoyed, perhaps even indignant. Some already are. A few fellow writers, even, have worked hard through legal courses to block this book’s publication. The forced redaction of key quotations herein (replaced by paraphrase) is one result of their efforts; the edition’s beautiful original covers have also been suppressed.” —Kent Johnson, from the introduction.
Produced in edition of 100 and subsidized through advanced subscription. Cover wraps (pictured above) were two color letterpress printed on Magnani Pescia; they were soon after destroyed in an effort to preempt legal action threatened by five poets, two literary estates and one of the largest publishing houses in the US.