West-Running Brook

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1928. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. Lankes, J.J.. One of 1000 copies, large octavo size, 67 pp., signed by Frost and Lankes, in glassine wrapper and publisher's slipcase. Robert Frost (1874-1963) remains highly regarded, having won four Pulitzer Prizes for his work (1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943); he was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal (1960) for his poetical work. In providing an overview of Frost's style, the Poetry Foundation places Frost's work "at the crossroads of nineteenth-century American poetry [with regard to his use of traditional forms] and modernism [with his use of idiomatic language (truncated) and ordinary, every day subject matter]." They also note that Frost believed that "the self-imposed restrictions of meter in form" was more helpful than harmful because he could focus on the content of his poems instead of concerning himself with creating "innovative" new verse forms (n.b., info from Wikipedia).

With four woodcut illustrations by Julius John (J.J.) Lankes (1884-1960) who made his first woodcut using a tool from the company for which he then worked (a V-cutting tool, not intended for woodcuts) and "a piece of wood from an apple tree blown down by a storm" (n.b., info and quote from Wiki). Lankes would go on to become "elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1954" (ibid). Robert Frost himself noted that the illustrations for this work were "[o]ne of Lankes' four best" (Mertins, pp. 66 and 67).

This signed, limited edition published in the same year as the first edition (1928). The poems are divided into six sections: I., Spring Pools; II., Fiat Nox; III., West-Running Brook; IV., Sand Dunes; V., Over Back; and VI., My Native Simile.

___DESCRIPTION: Quarter green cloth with paper boards decorated with a pattern of autumn leaves, gilt lettering on the spine, top edge gilt, limitation statement with author's signature after flyleaf, this no. 673 of 1000 copies, four woodcuts by J.J. Lankes including the frontispiece bound in throughout, all signed by him in pencil below the plate and each with its original tissue guard; large octavo size (9 1/8" by 6 1/8"), pagination: [1, limitation page with blank verso] [i-vi], vii-viii [1-2] 3-58. The volume with its original glassine wrapper and in the publisher's slipcase, this covered in moss-green paper, white paper spine label with decorative rules and lettering in black, the limitation number written in pencil at the tail of the spine.

___CONDITION: Volume fine; the green cloth shelfback clean and showing only the most minute wear at the corners of the head and tail, the paper boards clean and utterly without wear, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; the bottom corners with a slight lightening of the green colour, however the paper remains unrubbed. The glassine wrapper near fine, minor overall edgewear, the spine with sunning and small chips at the head and tail; the slipcase also near fine, strong and sturdy with no splits or tears, the paper covering clean; the spine label sunned and with some pencil marks at the top edge (may have been an old price), light wear to the paper at the opening and tail of the spine. Overall a stunning example of a lovely publication by a major American poet.

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