[2] pp. (8vo) 23x15 cm (9x6"), single sheet folded to make 2 pages, in black wrapper with paper cover label, acetate jacket, housed in a specially made drop back box with black morocco and marbled boards design, gilt title and spine. One of 100 copies. First Edition.

Signed by Brautigan on the paper cover label. First published in May of 1957, The Return of the Rivers, a single poem, is considered Brautigan's first poetry book publication. The poem was printed as a favor to Brautigan by Leslie Woolf Hedley of Inferno Press. The book was constructed by Brautigan, his wife Virginia, and poet Ron Loewinsohn. The poem was reprinted in the collection, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. There are no records of this piece having ever been offered at auction and OCLC shows only two library holdings;  UC Berkeley and the University of Virginia. OCLC suggests there are only 15 copies of the poem still known to exist. This is a solid copy of what is most assuredly the rarest piece of important Brautigan ephemera in existence.