Collected Poems, inscribed by Robert Frost.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1930. First trade edition, first printing. Hardcover. This first trade edition, first printing of the book that won the author his second Pulitzer Prize in 1931 is inscribed in two lines on the title page; Frost inked "Robert Frost" directly below the title and "For Viola W. Walker" directly below the woodcut illustration.
Frost’s first collected edition, Collected Poems “contains the poems from Frost’s first five books of poetry. Only minor modifications were made prior to publication; Frost removed three poems from and added one poem to the section for A Boy’s Will (1913), added two poems to the section for Mountain Interval (1916), and added three poems to the section for West-Running Brook…. Frost was worried about its public appearance” and that “critics might echo some of the attacks made against West-Running Brook” (1928). He need not have worried; “the publication became the major victory for which Frost had hoped.”
Publication of this first trade edition swiftly followed the limited edition, printed from plates made from the limited edition type, and bound in a light orange-brown cloth with double gilt rule borders on the front cover. The contents were bound with untrimmed fore and bottom edges, red-brown stained top edges, and rust-red and yellow head and tail bands.
This copy came to us from the great-niece of the original owner, for whom it was inscribed by Frost. Condition is good plus, sound, complete, and clean within, though with imperfect shelf presentation. The binding is square and tight and substantially clean, with modest shelf wear confined to extremities. The significant defect is differential fading to the spine and some loss of the gilt print at the head, the title partially eroded, the author’s name only partially and faintly visible. The contents are clean, mildly age-toned, but with no spotting and with the topstain relatively unfaded and uniform. “Viola W. Walker” to whom Frost inscribed this book inked her name and “Whitinsville, Mass.” on the upper left front free endpaper recto, beside which a subsequent family owner also inked their name.
Iconic American poet Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963), the quintessential poetic voice of New England, was actually born in San Francisco and first published in England. When Frost was eleven, his newly widowed mother moved east to Salem, New Hampshire, to resume a teaching career. There Frost swiftly found his poetic voice, infused by New England scenes and sensibilities. Promising as both a student and writer, Frost nonetheless dropped out of both Dartmouth and Harvard, supporting himself and a young family by teaching and farming.
Ironically, it was a 1912 move to England with his wife and children that finally catalyzed his recognition as a noteworthy American poet. The manuscript of A Boy’s Will was completed in England and accepted for publication by David Nutt on 1 April 1913. A convocation of critical recognition, introduction to other writers, and creative energy supported the English publication of Frost’s second book, North of Boston, in 1914, after which “Frost’s reputation as a leading poet had been firmly established in England, and Henry Holt of New York had agreed to publish his books in America.” Accolades met his return to America at the end of 1914 and by 1917 a move to Amherst “launched him on the twofold career he would lead for the rest of his life: teaching whatever “subjects” he pleased at a congenial college… and “barding around,” his term for “saying” poems in a conversational performance.”
In 1924, New Hampshire won Frost the first of his eventual four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. This book, Collected Poems, won his second Pulitzer in 1931. He would win again in 1937 and 1943. Frost spent the final decade and a half of his life as “the most highly esteemed American poet of the twentieth century” and, two years before his death, became the first poet to read in the program of a U.S. Presidential inauguration (Kennedy, January 1961).
References: Crane A14.1; ANB; Tuten and Zubizarreta, p.58. Item #008620
Price: $750.00