FROST, Robert (1874-1963)

The Gold Hesperidee [First State with Provenance]

Cortland, N.Y. The Bibliophile Press, n.d. [1935]. Illustrated Wrappers. First Separate Edition, First State (with A on page 3 and long line on page 7). 8vo (186 x 123mm): 8pp. Publisher's tan stiff paper wrappers (Crane's Binding A of two first-state bindings), front cover ruled and lettered in black with vignette of top-hatted man beneath an apple tree by Anna Moore Newton McGraw (mother of the publisher, Earle Newton II), stitched at center fold with heavy brown cotton thread. One of 500 unnumbered copies printed, but allegedly all but 37 copies were recalled when the publisher noticed the clumsily long seventeenth line on p. 7 (subsequently corrected and the limitation statement reset in Issue B), although at least 67 additional first-state copies were later rubber-stamped "English" beneath the words "Copy number" on p. 2 and subsequently reissued. Clymer, pp. 67-68. Crane A19. Fine. Item #BB2691

First published in the September, 1921, issue of Farm and Fireside, then later collected in A Further Range (1936). According to the publisher's obituary (written by his daughter, Antoinette Newton, from whom this copy was acquired by J & J Hanrahan, Bookseller, with her typed note to Joyce and Jack Hanrahan laid in), Earle Newton II was Frost's student at Amherst, where Newton founded The Bibliophile Press. Intrigued by his student's burgeoning career as publisher, Frost offered him the chance to print the first separate edition of this poem. Newton's own copy of the poem is inscribed: "To Earle Newton, my best wishes in his next undertaking as a publisher, Robert Frost." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $349.00