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[Randall Jarrell, contributor]. Five Young American Poets: Mary Barnard, Randall Jarrell, John Berryman, W. R. Moses, Geor...
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Description
[Randall Jarrell, contributor]. Five Young American Poets: Mary Barnard, Randall Jarrell, John Berryman, W. R. Moses, George Marion O'Donnell. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, [1940].8vo. Original blue buckram, spine stamped in gilt; cloth folding case.
FIRST EDITION, one of 800 copies printed. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO JOHN CROWE RANSOM with 8-lines of verse on the front free endpaper: "While I sit dozing in the Texas sun / The snow comes cold at Kenyon / To my professor, John Crowe Ransom; / The flakes fall fast on his wife Robb, on Helen, / On little Jack and bigger Revel Ransom. / May they laugh all the Christmas season / Beneath the Muse's blind protection, / Her favorites past rhyme or reason." Below which he adds: "I know you'll get plenty of these, Mr. Ransom, but here's another anyway, Randall."
This collection includes the first major selection of Jarrell's poetry to be published, comprising the section of twenty poems entitled "The Rage for the Lost Penny," and includes Jarrell's six-page essay "A Note on Poetry." As his biographical note mentions on p. [83]: "Jarrell taught two years at Kenyon College, under John Crowe Ransom, and is now on the faculty at the University of Texas." As editor of The Kenyon Review, Ransom would have presumably received a review copy of this anthology, but Jarrell would also have known that both W. R. Moses and George Marion O'Donnell had also been students of Ransom's at Vanderbilt, and they would likely have sent copies to their former teacher as well. With a small ink marginal mark beside a passage in Jarrell's essay on p. 87, possibly made by Ransom. A WONDERFUL ASSOCIATION COPY.
Condition: Spine and board edges a little toned; pastedowns a little discolored; slight toning to free endpapers. Tear at lower gutter margin on pp. 91-92 (one of Jarrell's poems).
References: Wright B1.
Provenance: John Crowe Ransom (presentation inscription); purchased from James S. Jaffe Rare Books, Haverford, PA, 18 December 1997. From the William A. Strutz Library.
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Auction Info
2025 September 10 - 11 Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part III, Rare Books Signature® Auction #6321 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
September, 2025
10th-11th
Wednesday-Thursday
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