Yoko Ono | Grapefruit, 1964, first edition, inscribed to Dan and Jill Richter

Yoko Ono

Grapefruit. Tokyo: Wunternaum Press, 1964

FIRST EDITION, one of 500 copies, INSCRIBED ON THE FRONT FREE ENDPAPERS ("To Jill & Dan [Richter], love, Yoko Winter, 1966 London"), thick square 8vo, text in English and Japanese, publisher's plain white wrappers with title printed in black, splitting at hinges with at least five preliminary leaves loose (including inscription and title page), wrappers marked and soiled, spine creased

Daniel Richter (b.1939), an American mime artist, met Yoko Ono in Tokyo in 1964 when he was studying traditional Japanese theatre. By the time she inscribed this book in the winter of 1966, they were both in London and part of the flourishing art scene of the late '60s. Richter played the the "Moonwatcher" ape in Stanley Kubrick's 2001; edited the underground poetry magazine Residu with his wife, Jill; and had befriended John Dunbar of the Indica Gallery (which was supported by Paul McCartney), where Ono exhibited. He and his wife remained close to Ono as her relationship with John Lennon developed, and they ended up living with John and Yoko for several years as confidantes and personal assistants. See also lot 112.