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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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
NY: Henry Holt, (1945). First edition. Frost's one-act play in verse, with a cast of three characters: God, Job, and Job's wife. Inscribed by Frost on front endpaper. Fine in black cloth. Pictorial dustwrapper shows faint wear to spine ends, else fine and bright. (Crane A27.1). More
Concord, NH: November, 1946. Volume XVI, Number 8. (32) pp. The Robert Frost issue, containing the first published appearance of "Our Getaway", in addition to reprinting an extract from "New Hampshire" and the full text of "Desert Places". Edited by Herbert Faulkner West, and with contributions by Sidney Cox, J.J.... 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
London: David Nutt, (1914). First edition. From an edition of 1000 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
Middletown, Connecticut: The Library, 1936. Octavo. One of 225 copies. Illustrated with several woodcuts, including a frontispiece portrait of the artist. Fine in green cloth. More
(New York: Henry Holt, 1924). Single sheet folded once to make a four-page pamphlet. First edition. Limited to 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. A.... 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
Boston: David R. Godine, 1974. Quarto. 14 ff. First separate edition. One of 1000 copies printed. Facsimile of Frost's holograph manuscript text for the Introduction to Robinson's posthumously published verse play. With an Introduction by Edward Connery Lathem. Extremely fine in yellow wrappers. 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, (1928). Small quarto. viii, 58pp. Second (i.e., limited) edition. One of 1,000 copies signed by the author. Illustrated with four full-page woodcuts, each of which is signed in pencil by the artist, J. J. Lankes. These have been inserted and are not included in the pagination. This... More
NY: Henry Holt, (c. 1923). 8 ff. Promotional pamphlet produced by Holt containing a biographical sketch of Frost from Amy Lowell's Tendencies in Modern American Poetry, brief reviews of Frost's first four books by Louis Untermeyer, and a sequence of four quotes from Frost, which are unattributed. With DeWitt Ward's... More
(Pittsburgh, PA): University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978. Octavo. Part of the Pittsburgh Series in Bibliography. Very fine in blue cloth over boards. Prospectus laid in. More
London: Elkin Mathews & Marrot, 1928. Octavo. First edition. With an unpublished cartoon by Max Beerbohm in collotype, hand-colored. First signature loose, else near fine in green cloth. Dust jacket has loss at edges and spine, darkened at spine, and lightly soiled, else very good. More
London: Bernard Quaritch, 1992. Octavo. Fine in printed wrappers. More
Bloomington, IN: Lilly Library, Indiana University, 1994. Quarto. Fine in printed wrappers. More
Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library and the Goethe Institute of Boston, 1982. Quarto. Bound in printed wrappers, which are lightly rubbed, else fine. More
(London): Golden Cockerel Press, 1948. Tall octavo. 28pp. From an edition of 750, this is one of 100 copies specially bound and with an extra engraving. The twelve engravings by John Buckland-Wright perfectly complement Swinburne's long erotic poem. In full brown morocco with a black onlay to the upper cover... More
Cambridge, MA: Advocate House, 1950. Quarto. 24pp. Volume 134, number one. This is identified as the "Registration Issue" on the front cover, published September, 1950. Features a cover illustration by Edward Gorey showing two Mr. Earbrass-style characters throwing sticks at two hooded heads on pikes. This constitutes Gorey's first published... More
