North of Boston Robert Frost Other Poetry

This is a magnificently well-preserved copy of the second American edition of the author s second published book. Opening with the famous poems "The Pasture" and "Mending Wall," North of Boston bolstered Frost s newly minted literary reputation and precipitated his return to the United States from England. In 1919, four years after the American first trade edition, the American publisher issued this aesthetically compelling second and limited edition of 500 copies. The binding featured a dark green linen spine over lighter green, paper-covered boards with a gilt-stamped spine and gilt front panel with title and author printed in black. The contents feature fourteen illustrations by James Chapin and are printed on heavy, watermarked, laid, linen-rag paper with untrimmed fore and bottom edges. A dust jacket was issued on heavy, dark green laid paper with gilt print on the spine as well as the front cover, within a gilt rule frame.The edition is lovely, but proved fragile, the jacket particularly brittle, the paper-covered boards of the binding easily scuffed and soiled. This copy is an exception, a beautifully crisp and clean near fine copy in a very good dust jacket. The binding is almost immaculate - perfectly square, strikingly clean and bright with perfect sharp corners. We note only a few tiny blemishes to the paper-covered boards and a touch of wrinkling at the spine heel. The contents are not merely bright, but almost pristine, with a crisp, unread feel. There are no previous ownership marks. Even the untrimmed fore and bottom edges are perfect. We would grade this copy as truly fine if not for some incidental soiling to a small portion of the otherwise clean top edges. The dust jacket, if not quite so perfectly preserved, is nonetheless impressive and equal to the volume beneath. There are no splits at the joints or flap folds, as is common with these jackets, and it is substantially complete. We note only fractional chipping at the spine head, a small chip at the bottom edge of the rear face, and an irregular, roughly .75 x .25 inch loss at the upper right portion of the rear face. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable mylar cover.Iconic American poet and four-time Pulitzer Prize winner 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 "the place to be poor and to write poems" 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, followed by English publication of Frost s second book, North of Boston, in mid-May 1914. Thereafter, "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." By 1924 he had won the first of his eventual four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry (1931, 1937, and 1943). Frost spent his final years 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 A3.3; ANB Se