Search Results: Manuscript Poetry from Charles Agvent

[1926]. Manuscript. Several words on the last page are partly faded and obliterated by a repaired tear. A spectacular find in Good to Very Good condition. Exceptionally scarce 4-page AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT of a poem written by Auden as a teenager. Published in THE OXFORD OUTLOOK in November 1926 and not published in book form until 1994 in W. H. AUDEN JUVENILIA edited by Katherine Bucknell, from which much of the information below was acquired. Two other manuscript copies of this poem are known to exist, in the collections of David Ayerst (Bloomfield J16) and of Christopher Isherwood, neither exactly identical to this but both resembling this much more than the published version which eliminated several stanzas present here. All told there are 78 lines divided into three sections on both sides of two 6-7/8" x 8-7/8" sheets of paper watermarked "Civic Bond" that have long ago been neatly joined by a conservator who also made several paper repairs. The poem begins "The queen's hand on the king's cold… Read More

Manuscript. Mounting on verso obscures a few letters. Very Good in a Fine slipcase. On a 3-1/2" x 6" sheet of paper Lowell has written out his poem “A[n] Epigram on Certain Conservatives,” and SIGNED it below with his initials and a closing: "So, ending with a piece of/nonsense for a stopgap/I remain yours as always/J.R.L." On the verso is the first stanza of another poem, "Now Is Always Best," which begins, "Dreamy river of the Past," as well as partial lines from a third poem that have been trimmed off. Both titled poems were published in Lowell's UNCOLLECTED POEMS having been first published in THE BROADWAY JOURNAL in 1845. There are minor changes from the published version. This piece sold at Anderson Galleries in 1920. Housed in a brown cloth chemise and brown half morocco slipcase gilt-lettered on the spine. A[n] Epigram on Certain Conservatives In olden days mens’ ears were docked For thinking & for other crimes; And now some worthies, overstocked In those commodities, are shocked At the… Read More

Deerfoot Farm, 11 January 1886. Manuscript. Minor stains from mounting on verso. Boldly written and attractive. About Fine. On a 4-1/2" x 6-3/4" sheet of paper Lowell has written out the last 8 lines of his long poem “Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865,” written for and read at the Commemoration Day exercises at Harvard College on that day, an event especially honoring Harvard’s Civil War heroes. Undoubtedly for a special recipient, Harvard alumnus Lowell quotes the concluding lines and SIGNED and dated it below. Inspired by this Civil War Commemoration, Harvard’s famous Memorial Hall, in high Victorian Gothic style, was erected to commemorate graduates who died for the Union during the War. Funds raised to build the great hall totaled over $400,000, then equal to one-twelfth of Harvard’s total endowment. What words divine of lover or of poet Could tell our love & make Thee know it, Among the Nations bright beyond compare? What were our lives without thee? What all our… Read More

n.p., n.d. Manuscript. Some edgewear to the paper with a small piece, containing part of the title, detached but present. Paper somewhat fragile but still Very Good. HOLOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT Poem in Swinburne's hand of 25 lines titled "After Sunset" on two sides of a 5-3/8" x 11-3/4" sheet of plain paper. The poem is identical to the version published in Swinburne's collection TRISTRAM OF LYONESSE AND OTHER POEMS, but for one word which is crossed out with the published version above it and the omission here of the last three lines of the poem.

New York: Halcyon House, (1939). First Edition. Hardcover. Fine, lacking the dustwrapper. First Printing of the Halcyon House edition, a near exact reproduction of the Holt edition published a month earlier but without the introduction. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author "For Cornelius Weygandt" on the front endpaper with the final eight lines of the final poem in the book under the chapter AFTERTHOUGHT "A Missive Missal" in FROST'S HOLOGRAPH, here titled "From Twenty-five Thousand Years Ago--: "Far as we aim our signs to reach/Far as we often make them reach/There is an aeon limit set/Beyond which they are doomed to miss./Two souls may be to [sic] widely met./That sad-with-distance river beach/With mortal longing may beseech;/It cannot speak as far as this." Frost has omitted what would have been the third line of this section, "Across the soul-from-soul abyss." Weygandt, an English scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, first met Frost in 1915. He is described by Frost anonymously in his poem… Read More

n.p., n.d [1931]. First Edition. hardcover. Fine in a Very Good slipcase with minor wear and splits. Green marbled boards lettered in red backed with green cloth. A lithographic reproduction of four leaves of the original manuscript of this poem, with the fifth and last page, consisting of four lines, in the author's HOLOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT. SIGNED and dated Oct. 1931 by the author at the conclusion with the limitation notice in his hand, in this case: "No. J. Presentation. (20a)." Apparently the total limitation was 145 copies and this is one of 35 presentation copies, though this is not stated anywhere. Additionally INSCRIBED on the front endpaper: "For Earl E. Fisk/from AEC." With Fisk's bookplate on the front pastedown.

New York: Henry Holt and Company, (1936). First Edition. Hardcover. Owner name on the front endpaper. Spine sunned. Near Fine, lacking the dustwrapper. A later printing of the First Trade Edition of Frost's third Pulitzer Prize winner. This copy is INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the half-title page to a professor at the University of Texas, Philip Graham, with two stanzas, a total of eight lines, from the poem "A Drumlin Woodchuck," which is included in this volume: "My own strategic retreat/Is where two rocks almost meet/And still more secure and snug/A two-door burrow I dug./With those in mind at my back/I can sit forth exposed to attack/As one who shrewdly pretends/That he and the world are friends."

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1923 (1924). First Edition. Hardcover. Very light wear to the spine tips and corners. At the bottom blank margin of the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay," the previous owner has penned a poem by Emily Dickinson. Near Fine, lacking the dustwrapper. J. J. Lankes. Third Printing of the First Trade Edition of one of Frost's most notable books and winner of his first Pulitzer Prize containing such poems as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "Fire and Ice." Illustrated with woodcuts by J. J. Lankes. This copy is INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the poet on the recto of the frontispiece for Harold Dickson along with a MANUSCRIPT stanza from "A Star in a Stone-Boat" in the poet's hand: "Some may [know] what they seek in school and church/And why they seek it there. For what I search/I must go measuring stone walls perch on perch." The poem is the first poem in the book after the title poem. Frost has left out the word "know," likely by accident, and changed the punctuation a bit,… Read More

New York: Henry Holt, 1923. First Edition. Hardcover. Light wear to the corners and faint dampstaining to the very edge of the boards and endpapers. Near Fine, lacking the dustwrapper. J. J. Lankes. Fourth Printing of this, one of Frost's most notable books and winner of his first Pulitzer Prize containing such poems as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "Fire and Ice." Illustrated with woodcuts by J. J. Lankes. This copy is INSCRIBED "For Roger Williams" and SIGNED by the poet on the title page with one of his most famous first lines, from "Mending Wall" from his collection NORTH OF BOSTON: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall."

New York: Henry Holt and Company, (Jan. 1929). Second Edition. Hardcover. Owner name and address on the rear endpaper. Spine quite dull with the lettering barely visible. Near Fine, lacking the dustwrapper. Cloth-backed boards. Later Printing (January 1929) of Frost's second book. Portrait frontispiece of the author. SIGNED by the poet on the title page with one of his most famous lines, from the first poem in the book "Mending Wall": "Something there is that doesn't love a wall./Robert Frost." A small (2-3/4" x 4") original photograph of Frost in a suit standing before a tree is pasted to the front endpaper.

New York: Henry Holt, 1915. First American Edition. Hardcover. Gilt bright, very minor rubbing to the spine tips. The scarce dustwrapper has the correct spelling of "faint" on the front. Some mild chipping to the head of the spine just affecting "North" in the title and slightly extending to both panels. Near Fine in a Very Good dustwrapper. Stated "Third Edition" on the copyright page but actually the Second Edition and the first edition printed in America; Crane A3.2: 1300 copies published. Tipped to the front pastedown is an @50 word AUTOGRAPH LETTER dated 12 May 1923 from South Shaftsbury, Vermont, SIGNED by the author, mentioning this book and how Frost would be happy to sign it if it is sent to his Ann Arbor address. On the first blank is a fourteen-line HOLOGRAPH FRAGMENT of Frost's famous poem "Birches," also SIGNED by the author with the dedication beneath his signature "To Maurice Frink," the same person to whom the letter is addressed. The fragment is the heart of the 59-line poem, first… Read More

New York: Henry Holt and Company, (Dec. 1925). Second Edition. Hardcover. Evidence of removal of bookplate on the front pastedown; light edgewear. Near Fine, lacking the dustwrapper. Cloth-backed boards. Later Printing (December 1925) of Frost's second book. Portrait frontispiece of the author. SIGNED by the poet on the front endpaper with a three-line stanza from a poem in the book "Blueberries": "Who cares what they say? It's a nice way to live/Just taking what Nature is willing to give/Not forcing her hand with harrow and plow/Robert Frost/For Fred Black." A small (3-3/8" x 4-3/8") original photograph of Frost in a suit standing with two other men is tipped to the front endpaper below the inscription. Fred Black was editor of Henry Ford's DEARBORN INDEPENDENT.

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1914 (Dec 1924). Second Edition. Hardcover. Hinges cracked, possibly repaired, but now tight; spine a bit dull. Very Good in a Near Fine dustwrapper. Cloth-backed boards. Later Printing (December 1924) of Frost's second book. Portrait frontispiece of the author. SIGNED by the poet on the front endpaper with some of his most famous lines, from "The Death of the Hired Man," a poem in this book: "'Home is the place where when you have to go there/They have to take you in.' 'I should have called it/Something you somehow haven't to deserve.' Robert Frost/Philadelphia Oct 27 1925."

New York: Atheneum, 1962. First Edition. Hardcover. A few spots of foxing to the bulked fore-edge of the text. Near Fine in a Very Good dustwrapper. This collection of essays and fables is INSCRIBED on the front pastedown and SIGNED by the poet "For David Posner/from/Randall Jarrell/with all best wishes." On the facing page, the front endpaper, Jarrell has also written out the complete short poem, "The Sign," with one word and a punctuation change from the published version in his 1969 COMPLETE POEMS. It was first published in 1966 as a broadside in about 100 copies for Friends of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In full: "Having eaten their mackerel,/drunk their milk,/They lie like two strands of/embroidery silk/Asleep in the glider; The child/repeats, 'It's such a pity!'/And paints on a piece of/beaverboard, FREE KITTY."

New York: Henry Holt, (1934). Third Edition. Hardcover. Spine a tad darkened, gilt still clear. Near Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper. A beautiful example. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author "For Harry and Anna-Louise Rudin of Vermont" on the front endpaper with the entire eight-line poem "Dust of Snow" in FROST'S HOLOGRAPH above the inscription.

New York: Henry Holt and Company, (1928). First Edition. Hardcover. Two facing pages tanned from a previously laid in newsclipping, another two facing pages with old adhesive stain at the gutters; slightly shaken. Very Good, lacking the dustwrapper. Cloth-backed boards. This copy is INSCRIBED "Garnett F. Colgan" and SIGNED by the poet on the title page with one of his most famous first lines, from "Mending Wall" from his collection NORTH OF BOSTON: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall."

London: William Heinemann Ltd., (1935). Reprint. Hardcover. Minor rubbing to edges; short closed tear at lower edge of half-title; minor split between gatherings C and D; minor paper clip stains and toning touching poems. Very Good, lacking the dustwrapper. INSCRIBED by the poet “Kate Carter/Hotel Boulevard/Veytaux/1935” on the front free endpaper. In addition Sassoon has written two AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS SIGNED, each a complete fair copy of a poem. One poem, “’When I'm Alone’ -- The Words Tripped Off His Tongue,” is written on the verso of the front endpaper and SIGNED at the conclusion: “When I'm alone” -- the words tripped off his tongue As though to be alone were nothing strange. “When I was young,” he said; “when I was young.” I thought of age, and loneliness, and change. I thought how strange we grow when we're alone, And how unlike the selves that meet, and talk, And blow the candles out, and say good-night Alone -- The word is life endured and known. It is the stillness… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, (1951). First Edition. Hardcover. Slight toning to text; covers a little marked with minor fraying along spine edge. Very Good in a Near Fine dustwrapper. His fourth book. INSCRIBED on the front free endpaper and pastedown and SIGNED by the poet to his friends and poets Meryl and Courtney Johnson. Jarrell has also written out the complete poem in the book, "A Sick Child": The postman comes when I am still in bed.… Read More

London: Constable and Co. Ltd., (1921). First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good, lacking the dustwrapper. Cloth-backed decorated boards with a paper spine label. The trade edition INSCRIBED for Aubrey Lees in 1953 and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper where De La Mare has written out a MANUSCRIPT POEM that appears on page 9 of the book, "The Willow."

New York: Atheneum, 1960. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper. His fourth book. INSCRIBED on the verso of the front blank and SIGNED by the poet "To David Rogers/with all best wishes/from/Randall Jarrell." On the facing page Jarrell has also written out the complete short but powerful poem, "A War," first published in NATION in 1951 and not collected in a book until his SELECTED POEMS of 1955: "A War/There set out, slowly, for a Different World,/At four, on winter mornings, different legs .../You can't break eggs without making an omelette/--That's what they tell the eggs."