There is a deceptively simple goal for the collector of first editions: to obtain the earliest printed form of a work of literature, in as close to the condition it was in when it first appeared in bookstores as a new book. Dig deeper, though, and you find that the first edition collector also has an interest in ...
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London: John Lane the Bodley Head, (1936). Octavo. xiii, (766) pp. First edition printed in England. From an edition of 1000 copies, this is one of 900 printed on Japon vellum. Text follows second Odyssey Press edition. Includes bibliography by Peter Pertzoff which had been sent to Joyce and was... More
(Nutley, N.J.): Gianettino & Meredith, Inc., 1977. 12mo. (24)pp. From an edition of 275, this is one of fifty lettered copies in a cloth binding, signed by the artist, Jill Karla Schwarz. This humorous holiday list of thirteen "recipes" for turkey was appropriately filed by the author under the heading... More
Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1981. 29 pp. From an edition of 400, this is one of 100 copies specially bound by Bela Blau. Signed by President Gerald R. Ford. The text of a September 1980 address given to the Visa International Convention in Quebec encouraging world peace for economic... More
Mount Vernon, NY: William Edwin Rudge, 1925. Octavo. 51pp. One of 500 copies. A one-act play, set in Medieval Spain, by the English poet and dramatist T. Sturge Moore. Designed by Bruce Rogers and bound in full golden morocco by Peter Franck, who at one time executed tooled leather bindings... More
London: Ernest Benn, (1932). 16ff. First edition of this selection. Binding A, in wrappers with the title page as the front cover. Together with a copy in the second binding, in which a simulated red linen paper is pasted over the wrappers, with a rectangular cut-out in the front which... More
Amherst: 1934. Single sheet measuring 6 1/8 by 8 inches. Addressed to Mr. Cutler, who was the principal of Athol High School in Massachusetts. Dated November 14, 1934, Frost appears to be responding to Cutler's request for a lecture, which he declines due to "being sent south for my health,"... More
November 1952. Holograph manuscript on two leaves of white wove, three-holed, loose-leaf paper measuring 9 1/2 by 6 inches. At the bottom of the second leaf, in Frost’s hand, the work is inscribed “Robert to Fred” (i.e. Frederick B. Adams, Jr.). A life-long bibliophile, Adams was the director of the..... More
Middlebury, VT: Bread Loaf School, (c. 1929). Single sheet folded twice to form an eight-page booklet. First separate edition. Bread Loaf Folder No. 3. This is the second printing of this small pamphlet, distinguishable by its being printed on pale green laid paper. This is a fine copy of a.... More
NY: Limited Editions Club, 1950. Two quarto volumes. xliv, 608pp., paginated continuously. One of 1500 copies designed by Bruce Rogers, illustrated with woodcuts by Thomas W. Nason, and signed by Frost, Nason, and Rogers. A fine set in full indigo denim with leather spine labels stamped in gold, and housed... More
(Salem: Colonial Society, 1939). First separate edition, which consisted of fewer than 100 copies. A single folded sheet with one page of type, printed by Dard Hunter II at the MIT Paper Museum Press. Inscribed by Frost to Martin K. Howes at foot of poem. Frost read this delightful piece... More
NY: Holt, (1936). First edition. One of 4,000 copies printed. This copy is inscribed by Frost with the final quatrain of "Desert Places". The inscription is dated "June 1936", which is shortly after the book's May 30th publication date. Frost received the Pulitzer Prize for this collection, and was the... More
NY: Holt, (1936). First edition. One of 4,000 copies printed. For this collection, Frost received the Pulitzer Prize, the third of four that he would receive in his lifetime. A fine copy in cloth, gilt on cover and spine fine and unoxidized; with a remarkably fine, bright dust wrapper that... More
NY: Holt Rinehart and Winston, (1962). First edition of Frost's last published collection. One of 1,500 copies signed by Frost. Printed by the Spiral Press. This collection contains "The Gift Outright," the poem that Frost recited at John F. Kennedy's inauguration, and the poem that he composed especially for the... More
Philadelphia: Colonial Press, February, 1917. Square octavo. 52, (2)pp. Contains the first appearance of "Locked Out," which had only previously seen print in The Bouquet, a magazine compiled by Frost's children in 1914. This poem was not included in the first edition of Mountain Interval but was added to its... More
London: David Nutt, (1914). First edition. From an edition of 1,000 copies, this is one of 200 in the sixth binding state. This was one of two binding states that were done by the Dunster House Bookshop in 1923 in Cambridge, MA when the remaining first edition sheets were sold... More
South Freeport, ME: Ascensius Press, 2015. Small quarto. 44ff. From an edition of forty-one, this is one of twenty-six lettered copies, bound in full calf. Frost's second book of poetry is here published in a centenary edition by Scott Vile of the Ascensius Press. In homage to Joseph Blumenthal, Frost's... More
(NY: Spiral Press), 1953. First edition. One of 587 copies with Frost's imprint. Decorations by Philip Grushkin. This copy bears an inscription by Frost on the title page to William Sloane and his wife, Julie. Sloane was Frost's editor at Holt and headed up the trade department from 1938 to... More
(Vermont: c. 1950). Black and white photograph, unmounted. Image measures 3 1/4 by 4 1/2 inches. On the verso it is noted that this image was taken by a photographer working for Black Star, the noted photo agency. It is an outdoor portrait of the elder Frost, likely taken in... More
(NY: Henry Holt, 1924). Single sheet folded once to make a four-page pamphlet. First edition. One of 2000 copies printed for distribution at Frost lectures at East Coast colleges. With two woodcut vignettes by J.J. Lankes. Signed by Frost below "The Pasture," which appears on the first page. Paper evenly... More
(N.p. c. 1915). Single page. Signed by Frost. The typescript has been copied in blue ink, with two manuscript corrections in Frost's hand. The first, a change from "need" to "wish" in the second line, appears in subsequent editions of the poem, which was first published in Frost's Mountain Interval... More
NY: Henry Holt, 1947. First edition. One of 751 copies signed by Frost. Title page decoration by Loren MacIver. In a review in the June 1, 1947 issue of the New York Times, Randall Jarrell singles out “Directive,” an early poem in Frost’s penultimate collection, for possessing “so much longing..... More
(1950). 13pp. Signed typescript with Frost's manuscript correction to the title, changing "Hard Not to be King" to "Hard to Keep from Being King," and noting "As read at the American Academy." Additionally inscribed by the author "For Reginald Cook" on the final page. Cook was a close friend of... More
NY: Henry Holt and Company, (1928). First edition, first issue, with no "first edition" statement on the copyright page, and "roams" for "romps" in the last line of Canis Major on page 44. Signed and dated by Frost on the front endpaper. Illustrated with a frontispiece and three full-page woodcuts... More
Boston: Stratford Co., 1925. First edition, binding A. Signed by Gernsback on the front free endpaper, with “Sincerely yours” added in a different hand. Illustrated with eleven black & white plates by Frank R. Paul. A novel of the future in which Gernsback intertwines a love story with predictions for..... More
London: Sheed & Ward, (1931). Octavo. iv, 121 pp. First edition. One of 500 copies signed by Eric Gill and Rene Hague and printed by Hague & Gill. This is a presentation copy, inscribed on the colophon. Illustrated with twenty-five figures, including ten type specimens and four illustrations from wood... More
