North of Boston.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1935. 20th printing of the first U.S. edition. Hardcover. This is the March 1935 20th printing of the first U.S. edition of Robert Frost’s second published book. When first published in 1914, North of Boston bolstered Frost’s newly minted literary reputation and precipitated his return to the United States from England, where his first two books were published. North of Boston opens with the famous poems “The Pasture” and “Mending Wall” and was swiftly hailed by important reviews.
As indicated on the copyright page, this second edition – the first U.S. edition – had a remarkable run of successive printings in the twenty years spanning publication of the first printing in March 1915 to publication of this 20th printing in March 1935. Rather than the blue cloth binding of the first U.S. edition, this 20th printing features a similar binding to that of the handsome 1919 second U.S. edition - quarter green cloth over green paper-covered boards. Condition is very good plus in a very good dust jacket. The binding is square and bright with sharp corners. We note only a little wear at the spine ends and a small dent to the bottom edge of the front cover. The contents are notably bright and clean, with no spotting, no previous ownership marks, and no appreciable age-toning. A little transfer browning to the endpapers from the pastedown glue is the only flaw to report. Even the untrimmed fore edges are bright and fresh. The dust jacket shows only trivial loss at the spine ends (not affecting the spine print) and flap fold corners, and some light soiling and scuffing. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.
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. Ironically, a 1912 move to England with his wife and children – “the place to be poor and to write poems” – catalyzed his recognition as a noteworthy American poet. A Boy’s Will was published in 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.” Of note, North of Boston was actually the first of Frost’s books published in America, preceding Holt’s publication of A Boy’s Will in America by one month and reversing the publication order of the British first editions.
Accolades met Frost’s 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.” By 1924 he had won the first of his eventual four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry (1931, 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” with a host of academic and civic honors to his credit. Two years before his death he became the first poet to read in the program of a U.S. Presidential inauguration (Kennedy, January 1961).
References: See Crane A3.2 (the first printing); ANB. Item #008683
Price: $275.00