Description:

Robert Frost
New York, NY, ca. 1915
Robert Frost Signed 1st American Ed. "A Boy's Will", Inscribed With Then-Unpublished "Fire & Ice"
Signed book

A first American edition of Robert Frost's first commercially published poetry collection, "A Boy's Will". New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915. 12mo, 5.25" x 7.75". 63pp. Signed and inscribed on the free front end paper "Robert Frost/ For Louis Strauss", with the remarkable holograph addition of his then-unpublished poem "Fire and Ice". Features its original blue cloth boards with gilt lettering to cover and spine. Exhibits heavy to moderate rubbing and age discoloration, with expected shelf wear throughout. Darkened toning present to front and back endpapers, not materially affecting text. Loose interior binding resulting in areas of tearing at hinges. Overall, good condition.

While it was not uncommon for Frost to inscribe his books with poems or stanza fragments, they usually consisted of known works. This example, by comparison, is unusual as the printing of "A Boy's Will" predates the publication of "Fire and Ice" by five years. He writes the poem in its entirety:

"Fire and Ice/
Some say the world with end in fire,/
Some say in ice./
From what I've tasted of desire/
I hold with those who favor fire./
But if it had to perish twice,/
I think I know enough of hate/
To say that for destruction ice/
Is also great/
And would suffice."

"Fire and Ice" was first published in December 1920 in Harper's Magazine, and later in Frost's 1923 Pulitzer Prize-winning book "New Hampshire". To this day, it remains among one of his best known and most-anthologized poems.

Louis Strauss was chairman of the English Department at the University of Michigan from 1920-1938, where Frost took up residence as "permanent Fellow in Letters" in the Fall of 1925 before returning to the East coast in 1927 to teach at Amherst.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 5.25" x 7.75"
  • Medium: Signed book

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