Leiris, Michel (two essays); Fernand Mourlot (annotated catalog); Peninah Neimark and E J W (transl)Biblio.com
Robert Frost, with introductory essays by W H Auden, C Day Lewis, Paul Engle, and Edwin MuirBiblio.com
Selected Poems signed and dated by Paul Engle at his introductory essay with his laid-in compliments card
1936008698London: Jonathan Cape Ltd. 1936. First edition first printing. Hardcover. This jacketed first edition first printing is signed by American poet literary critic and educator Paul Engle at the head of his introductory essay. On page 23 just below his printed name Engle signed Paul Engle in blue ink. A handsome folding compliments card laid in features a gilt embossed crown device on the front cover the inside of the card printed With all best wishes and UNIVERSITY OF IOWA with Engles signature Paul Engle in between. Also laid in is a franked 1957 postcard posted from New York City featuring a printed announcement: The Poetry Society of America has the honor of presenting PAUL ENGLE in comments and readings from his published work on Thursday February 28 . <br /> <br />Condition of this signed presentation copy is near fine in a very good dust jacket. The blue cloth binding is square clean bright and tight with sharp corners and only mild shelf wear to the bottom edges. The contents are clean with no spotting no soiling and only mild age toning. The blue-stained top edges retain even color the fore and untrimmed bottom edges are clean. The sole previous owner markings in the book in pencil on the upper front pastedown indicate that the ostensibly original owner paid $2.00 for this copy on Nov. 25 1936 and that it was Signed Mar. 7 1957 not long after the 28 February 1957 event advertised on the laid-in postcard. <br /> <br />The white dust jacket printed in red and black is unclipped retaining the original lower front flap 5s. net price and substantially complete with fractional loss confined to the upper joints and upper flap fold corners. The jacket is unfaded with no color shift between the covers and spine but lightly soiled overall with a short closed tear at the upper front flap fold and a three-inch angled tear extending from the upper front joint down along the front face to the left of the printed title. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear removable archival cover. <br /> <br />The contributing author who signed Paul Engle 1908-1991 had intended to become a Methodist minister but decided instead to enter the University of Iowa and obtained an M.A. in 1932. His thesis consisted of an original book of poems Worn Earth which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. A sojourn in England followed via a Rhodes scholarship and study under the poet Edmund Blunden. This may help explain why Engle is the only American among the four contributors to this work. Engle took a post at the University of Iowa in 1937 where he spent the remainder of his academic career. By the end of his life he had published more than a dozen books of poetry and left an enduring mark on the institutionalization of creative writing. <br /> <br />Frosts Selected Poems had first been published in 1923 with 43 poems from Frosts first three published collections. This 1936 new and expanded edition now with 62 poems was the first book of Frosts to contain material by others with introductory essays by W. H. Auden C. Day Lewis Paul Engle and Edwin Muir. It was published first and only in England where Frosts first book A Boys Will had been published in 1913 23 years before. It had been in England that this quintessential American poet had been first published and recognized. Now preeminent in America Frost was being reintroduced to England. As explained by the publishers note on the dust jacket flap: Mr. Robert Frost is by now recognized as the outstanding poet of his generation in America and to the few but still too few in England his work has long been known as unique in its kind it is a striking tribute to the appeal of his poetry that Mr. W. H. Auden Mr. Cecil Day Lewis Mr. Paul Engle and Mr. Edwin Muir should have contributed for this volume four specially written essays of critical appreciation uniting in their admiration of an artist older in years but unageing in his sensibility and performance. <br /> <br />References: Crane A5 & A22; ANB; Parini Robert Frost: A Life <br/><br/> Jonathan Cape Ltd. hardcover
Churchill Book Collector · États-Unis550,00 $US≈ 465,35 €
