John Cage (First Edition, inscribed to Ellsworth Snyder in 1971)

New York: Praeger, 1970. First Edition. First Edition. INSCRIBED by Cage in 1971 to Ellsworth Snyder: "for Ellsworth Snyder, / with admiration and friendship / John Cage, Madison '71."

Ellsworth Snyder and Cage were longtime friends. Snyder performed the composer's work on many occasions, perhaps most infamously at Cage's much-protested 1965 appearance at the University of Illinois: "At one point [Snyder] crawled under the piano, made a show of carefully marking a precise point on the under-body of the instrument with a tape measure, then hit that spot with a mallet. Even more provocative for that particular audience, he had planted a loose piano string in the instrument, and after striking an unusually percussive chord he slowly pulled the ostensibly broken string out of the piano. By this time the audience was screaming and throwing objects at the stage." (Johanne Rivest, "In Advance of the Avant Garde: John Cage at the University of Illinois, 1952-69," 1999).

Snyder contributes an essay to this volume titled, "Chronological Table of John Cage's Life." Additionally, he is particularly thanked by editor Kostelanetz for his help in assembling the bibliographic sections at the end of the book. One of the earliest books to consider all aspects of Cage's career as writer, performer, artist, and composer. A superb association.

Fine in a Near Fine dust jacket.