LOT #45116 |
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Robert Frost. Steeple Bush. ...
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$3,750.00
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Description
Robert Frost. Steeple Bush. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1947.Tall 8vo. Original linen-backed gray-green boards, front cover stamped in gilt, gilt-lettered leather spine label; original glassine dust jacket; publisher's board slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, number 169 of 751 copies, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. PRESENTION COPY, ADDITIONALLY INSCRIBED BY FROST WITH THE COMPLETE 8-LINE POEM "A MOOD APART" on the front free endpaper: "To Betty and Fred Adams / from theirs ever / Robert Frost / Ripton Vermont, August 15, 1947 / Once down on my knees to growing plants / I prodded the earth with a lazy tool / In time with a medley of sotto chants / But becoming aware of some boys from school / Who had stopped outside the fence to spy, / I stopped my song and almost heart. / For any eye is an evil eye / That looks in onto a mood apart. / R F."
The inscribed lines comprise the complete poem "A Mood Apart" which appears in the present collection of poems on p. 25.
Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr. (1910-2001) was a noted bibliophile and, according to his obituary in the New York Times, amassed two of the largest holdings of works by Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost. In 1948, he succeeded Bella da Costa Greene as director of the Pierpont Morgan, a position he held for over two decades. He is credited with greatly expanding the scope of the library, when "the Morgan made some of its most spectacular acquisitions and completed its transition from a private library to a public institution" (John Bidwell, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society). Adams held many prominent positions in the rare book collecting community, serving as president of the Grolier Club, president of the Bibliographical Society of America, and president of the New York Historical Society. He was also a member of the American Antiquarian Society. John Bidwell's obituary for Adams in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society remembered him, "to three generations of collectors he was the ideal rare-book librarian, an able administrator always read the preach the primacy of originals in art, literature, and history."
A REMARKABLE ASSOCIATION.
Condition: Book fine. Glassine with tears along spine folds, most glassine still present. Publisher's slipcase with just a few minor spots and light edgewear.
References: Crane A30.
Provenance: Betty and Fred Adams (presentation inscription; and bookplate of Frederick B. Adams, Jr.; his sale, Sotheby's, 6 November 2001, lot 226); purchased from Bauman Rare Books, New York. From the William A. Strutz Library.
View all of [The William A. Strutz Library ]
Auction Info
2024 December 11 Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part II, Rare Books Signature® Auction #6300 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2024
11th
Wednesday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 4
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
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