Fruits and Vegetables: Poems.

Here is the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Erica Jong's very first book: a surrealistic, funny, gastronomic, erotic, serious look at being human and female and American.

Erica Jong, the best-selling author of Fear of Flying, and more recently, Fear of Fifty, began her literary life as a poet. Fruits & Vegetables, originally published in 1971, offers a glimpse into the daring, erotic imagination of a young author of great promise. Here is a writer who puts metaphors in her oven, fruits and vegetables in her bed. In her tide poem, Jong considers the character of the onion: "Not self-righteous like the proletarian potato, nor a siren like the apple. No show-off like the banana. But a modest, self-effacing vegetable, questioning, introspective, peeling itself away . . ."

Throughout her debut collection, Erica Jong demonstrates a remarkable adventurousness, erudition, lyricism, and command of the poetic form. At the same time, she examines many of the themes she will pursue in years to come. On the subject of desire, she writes: "The corruption begins with the eyes, / the page, the hunger. / It hangs on the first hook / of the first comma.... The corruption begins with the mouth, / the tongue, the wanting. / The first poem in the world / is I want to eat.

For the many fans who have yet to discover-or rediscover-where the literary career of Erica Jong began, this special anniversary edition of Fruits & Vegetables, complete with a new preface by the author, is a must.