# John Ashbery bibliography

The bibliography of John Ashbery includes poetry, literary criticism, art criticism, journalism, drama, fiction, and translations of verse and prose. His most significant body of work is in poetry, having published numerous poetry collections, book-length poems, and limited edition chapbooks. In his capacity as a journalist and art critic, he contributed to magazines like New York and Newsweek. He served for a time as the editor of Art and Literature: an International Review and as executive editor of Art News. In drama and fiction, he wrote five plays and cowrote the novel A Nest of Ninnies with James Schuyler. Beyond his original works, he translated verse and prose from French. Many of his works of poetry, prose, drama, and translations have been compiled in volumes of collected writings.

## Books
### Verse

Ashbery published 26 books of poetry (not including his limited edition books, listed below). Most of them are poetry collections, which typically contain a mix of new and previously published poems. Flow Chart and Girls on the Run are book-length long poems.
| Year | Title | Publisher | First edition catalog no. | Notes |
| 1956 | Some Trees | Yale University Press | LCCN 56-5940 | Yale Series of Younger Poets, volume 52. With a foreword by W. H. Auden. |
| 1962 | The Tennis Court Oath | Wesleyan University Press | LCCN 56-5940 | — |
| 1966 | Rivers and Mountains | Holt, Rinehart and Winston | LCCN 65-22471 | — |
| 1970 | The Double Dream of Spring | E. P. Dutton and Company | LCCN 77-87191 | — |
| 1972 | Three Poems | Viking Press | ISBN 0-670-70906-9 | Prose poetry. |
| 1975 | The Vermont Notebook | Black Sparrow Press | ISBN 0-87685-227-4 | Illustrations by Joe Brainard. |
| 1975 | Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror | Viking Press | ISBN 0-670-63283-X | — |
| 1977 | Houseboat Days | Viking Press | ISBN 0-670-38035-0 | — |
| 1979 | As We Know | Viking Press | ISBN 0-670-13780-4 | — |
| 1981 | Shadow Train | Viking Press | ISBN 0-670-63786-6 | — |
| 1984 | A Wave | Viking Press | ISBN 0-670-75176-6 | — |
| 1987 | April Galleons | Viking Press | ISBN 0-670-81958-1 | — |
| 1991 | Flow Chart | Alfred A. Knopf | ISBN 0-670-81958-1 | Long poem. |
| 1992 | Hotel Lautréamont | Alfred A. Knopf | ISBN 0-679-41512-2 | — |
| 1994 | And the Stars Were Shining | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 0-374-10500-6 | — |
| 1995 | Can You Hear, Bird | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 0-374-11831-0 | — |
| 1998 | Wakefulness | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 0-374-28598-5 | — |
| 1999 | Girls on the Run | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 0-374-16270-0 | Long poem. |
| 2000 | Your Name Here | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 0-374-29598-0 | — |
| 2002 | Chinese Whispers | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 0-374-12257-1 | — |
| 2005 | Where Shall I Wander | Ecco Press | ISBN 0-06-076529-1 | — |
| 2007 | A Worldly Country | Ecco Press | ISBN 0-06-117383-5 | — |
| 2009 | Planisphere | Ecco Press | ISBN 978-0-06-191521-5 | — |
| 2012 | Quick Question | Ecco Press | ISBN 978-0-06-222595-5 | — |
| 2015 | Breezeway | Ecco Press | ISBN 978-0-06-238702-8 | — |
| 2016 | Commotion of the Birds | Ecco Press | ISBN 978-0-06-256509-9 | — |

#### Translated verse

| Year | Title | Original author | Publisher | ISBN |
| 2008 | The Landscapist: Selected Poems | Pierre Martory | Sheep Meadow Press – distributed by University Press of New England | ISBN 978-1-931357-52-4 |
| 2011 | Illuminations | Arthur Rimbaud | W. W. Norton & Company | ISBN 978-0-393-07635-6 |

#### Limited edition

The first edition of these works were printed in a limited edition. They are often printed as chapbooks, with each copy numbered and with a set number of signed copies. Many of these books are collaborations with visual artists or other poets. The contents of these books often share significant overlap with Ashbery's poetry collections; for example, Turandot and Other Poems overlaps significantly with Some Trees.
| Year | Title | Publisher | First edition catalog no. | Notes |
| 1953 | Turandot and Other Poems | Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery | LCCN 2015-657560 | Includes illustrations by Jane Freilicher. Published as a chapbook. Although it was published before Some Trees, most of its poems were also collected in that book, which is regarded as the first (or first "major") volume of Ashbery's poetry. Limited edition of 300 copies. |
| 1960 | The Poems | Tiber Press | LCCN 67-1547 | Includes prints by Joan Mitchell. Limited edition of 225 copies; 25 are numbered, 200 are signed. |
| 1968 | Sunrise in Suburbia | Phoenix Book Shop | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. Limited edition of 126 copies. |
| 1968 | Three Madrigals | Poets Press | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. Published by Diane di Prima's Poets Press. The poem is reproduced as a facsimile (copy) of Ashbery's handwritten original, which includes several drawings. Limited edition of 162 copies. |
| 1969 | Fragment | Black Sparrow Press | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. Limited edition of 1,020 copies. |
| 1970 | Evening in the Country | Spanish Main Press | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. |
| 1970 | The New Spirit | Adventures in Poetry | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. Limited edition of 65 copies. |
| 1975 | The Serious Doll | Kermani Press | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. Limited, numbered, and signed edition of 50 copies. |
| 1975 | The Vermont Notebook | Black Sparrow Press | ISBN 0-87685-227-4 | Two special first editions: Signed and numbered edition of 250 copies Signed and lettered edition of 26 copies, each with an original ink drawing by Joe Brainard |
| 1981 | Apparitions: Poems | Lord John Press | ISBN 0-935716-10-6 | Galway Kinnell, W. S. Merwin, Liz Rosenberg, Dave Smith. Limited edition of 300 copies, signed by all five authors. |
| 1984 | Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror | Arion Press | — | Fine art edition containing the poem of the same name. Packaged in a stainless steel film canister. Contains a new foreword by Ashbery; a 12-inch vinyl record with a recording of Ashbery reading the poem; an essay by Helen Vendler; original prints by Richard Avedon, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Jim Dine, Jane Freilicher, Alex Katz, R. B. Kitaj, and Larry Rivers. Limited edition of 175 copies. |
| 1984 | Spring Day | Palaemon Press | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. |
| 1987 | The Ice Storm | Hanuman Books | — | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. |
| 1990 | Haibun | Hanuman Books | — | Chapbook containing the six haibun poems from A Wave. Illustrations by Judith Shea. |
| 1991 | The Kaiser's Children | Charles Seluzicki | — | Fine art edition containing excerpts from the poem "Dreams of Adulthood", which was originally published. Includes illustrations by Eric Stotik. Limited, numbered edition of 50 copies, signed by Ashbery and Stotik. |
| 1998 | Description of a Masque | Limited Editions Club | — | Contains the poem of the same name. Includes illustrations by Jane Freilicher. Limited, numbered edition of 300 copies. |
| 1998 | Novel | Grenfell Press | — | Contains the poem of the same name, written in 1954 but previously unpublished. Includes illustrations by Trevor Winkfield. Limited, numbered edition of 100 copies, plus 15 artists' proofs; all copies signed by Ashbery and Winkfield. |
| 1999 | Who Knows What Constitutes a Life | Z Press | LCCN 2015-657570 | Chapbook containing the poem of the same name. Illustrated by Elizabeth Murray. Limited edition chapbook of 200 copies, with 26 copies lettered A to Z signed by the poet and the artist with an original print by Elizabeth Murray. |
| 2001 | 100 Multiple-Choice Questions | Adventures in Poetry | ISBN 0-9706250-0-6 | Reprint of a poem first published in the January 1970 issue of the journal Adventures in Poetry. Limited edition of 500 copies. |
| 2001 | As Umbrellas Follow Rain | Qua Books | ISBN 0-9708763-0-0 | Dust jacket art by Tom Burckhard. Limited edition in two runs: 100 numbered copies signed by Ashbery and Burckhard, and 900 unnumbered unsigned copies. |
| 1999 | The Recital / Le Récital | Ergo Pers Artists' Books | — | Contains the prose poem of the same name (originally published in Three Poems). Bilingual edition in English and French. Translation by Franck André Jamme. Illustrated by Hanns Schimansky. Limited edition chapbook of 40 copies. |

### Prose

| Year | Title | Publisher | First edition catalog no. | Notes |
| 1969 | A Nest of Ninnies | E. P. Dutton and Company | LCCN 69-17307 | A novel written in collaboration with James Schuyler. New edition by Dalkey Archive Press in 2008 (ISBN 978-1-56478-520-6). |
| 2000 | Other Traditions | Harvard University Press | ISBN 0-674-00315-2 | A book of literacy criticism about six writers who Ashbery turns to for inspiration: John Clare, Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Raymond Roussel, John Wheelwright, Laura Riding, and David Schubert. |

### Compiled works
#### Collected verse

| Year | Title | Publisher | First edition catalog no. | Notes |
| 1967 | Selected Poems | Jonathan Cape | LCCN 97-89583 | Contains selected poems from: Some Trees The Tennis Court Oath Rivers and Mountains |
| 1985 | Selected Poems | Penguin Books | ISBN 0-670-80917-9 | Contains selected poems from: Some Trees The Tennis Court Oath Rivers and Mountains The Double Dream of Spring Three Poems Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror Houseboat Days As We Know Shadow Train A Wave |
| 1993 | Three Books | Penguin Books | ISBN 0-14-058702-0 | Collects all poems from Houseboat Days, Shadow Train, and A Wave. |
| 1997 | The Mooring of Starting Out: The First Five Books of Poetry | Carcanet Press | ISBN 1-85754-366-1 | Contains: Some Trees The Tennis Court Oath Rivers and Mountains The Double Dream of Spring Three Poems |
| 2007 | Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems | Ecco Press | ISBN 978-0-06-136717-5 | Contains selected poems and excerpts from: April Galleons Flow Chart (excerpted) Hotel Lautréamont And the Stars Were Shining Can You Hear, Bird Wakefulness Girls on the Run (excerpted) Your Name Here As Umbrellas Follow Rain Chinese Whispers Where Shall I Wander |
| 2008 | Collected Poems 1956–1987 | Library of America | ISBN 1-59853-028-3 | Library of America series, volume 187. Edited by Mark Ford. Contains all poems from Some Trees, The Tennis Court Oath, Rivers and Mountains, The Double Dream of Spring, Three Poems, The Vermont Notebook, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, Houseboat Days, As We Know, Shadow Train, A Wave, and April Galleons, as well as previously uncollected poems. |
| 2014 | Collected French Translations: Poetry | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 978-0-374-25802-3 | Edited by Rosanne Wasserman and Eugene Richie. |
| 2017 | Collected Poems 1991–2000 | Library of America | ISBN 1-59853-535-8 | Library of America series, volume 301. Edited by Mark Ford; chronology by Mark Ford and David Kermani. Contains all poems from Flow Chart, Hotel Lautréamont, And the Stars Were Shining, Can You Hear, Bird, Wakefulness, Girls on the Run, and Your Name Here, as well as previously uncollected poems. |
| 2018 | They Knew What They Wanted: Poems and Collages | Rizzoli Electa | ISBN 978-0-8478-6056-2 | Edited by Mark Polizzotti. Preface by Polizzotti, introduction and an interview with Ashbery by John Yau. Includes a selection of Ashbery's collages, several previously published poems, and a poem that had only been published once before in Karin Roffman's biography The Songs We Know Best: John Ashbery's Early Life (2017). It is Ashbery's first posthumous book—though, according to Polizzotti's preface, it was "for all intents and purposes finished before his passing". |

#### Collected prose or drama

| Year | Title | Publisher | First edition catalog no. | Notes |
| 1978 | Three Plays | Z Press | ISBN 0-915990-12-1 | Contains the plays The Compromise, The Heroes, and The Philosophers. |
| 1989 | Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles 1957–1987 | Alfred A. Knopf | ISBN 0-394-57387-0 | Edited by David Bergman. Contains selected articles of art criticism and journalism. |
| 2005 | Selected Prose 1953–2003 | University of Michigan Press | ISBN 0-472-11439-5 | Edited by Eugene Richie. |
| 2014 | Collected French Translations: Prose | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN 978-0-374-25803-0 | Edited by Rosanne Wasserman and Eugene Richie. |

## Plays

| Year | Work | Notes |
| 1950 | The Heroes | Included in Three Plays. Written in 1950; first staged by the Living Theatre in 1952. |
| 1955 | The Compromise | Included in Three Plays. Written in 1955; first staged by the Poets Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1956. The text of the play includes Ashbery's poem "America". The Compromise was published in the one-shot review The Hasty Papers (1960), edited by Alfred Leslie. |
| 1956 | The Milky Coconut | Four scenes from the play were published in two issues of Semi-Colon; otherwise unpublished. |
| 1959 | The Philosopher | Included in Three Plays. |
| 1960 | To the Mill | A short verse play. First published in Alfred Leslie's one-shot review The Hasty Papers (1960). |

## Journalism

Asbery wrote numerous journalistic articles—mostly art criticism—in the International Herald Tribune, New York magazine, Newsweek, and other periodicals. Ashbery also edited the periodicals Art and Literature: An International Review and Art News.

## Interviews

Ashbery has been the interviewee in numerous published interviews. There has been one book-length interview published to date: John Ashbery in Conversation with Mark Ford. Only interviews published in books are listed here, not interviews published in periodicals or websites.
| Year | Title | Interviewer | Publisher | ISBN | Notes |
| 2003 | John Ashbery in Conversation with Mark Ford | Mark Ford | Between the Lines (UK); Dufour Editions (US) | ISBN 1-903291-12-7 | Book-length interview. |
| 2013 | Our Deep Gossip: Conversations with Gay Writers on Poetry and Desire | Christopher Hennessy | University of Wisconsin Press | ISBN 9780299295646 | Interview with Ashbery at pp. 53–78. |

## Academic theses

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1949 | The Poetic Medium of W. H. Auden | For his B.A. at Harvard University. About the English-American poet W. H. Auden. |
| 1951 | Three Novels of Henry Green | For his M.A. at Columbia University. About the English author Henry Green's novels Living (1929), Party Going (1939), and Concluding (1948). |