Harvard College Class of 1915. First Report, May, 1916.

First edition, signed by Cummings on the first page of his "The New Art" lecture on page 217, and with his hand correcting the misspelling of his middle name. This copy is from the library of the author's friend and French translator, David Jonathan Grossman, with his shelf label on the front wrapper. Grossman (1922-1990) had first met Cummings whilst attending Peter Monro Jack's course at Columbia night school in 1941-42. After serving in the Second World War, Grossman attended Harvard in 1946 and began writing a thesis on Cummings, which he never finished. By 1960 he had published his first translation, and in 1980 he was awarded the Prix Halperine-Kaminsky for his Cummings translations. Cummings gave his controversial speech at the Harvard commencement ceremony on 24 June 1915. He advocated for a new wave of creatives, such as Matisse, Cézanne, and Gertrude Stein, over the traditional Harvard curriculum. The audience was noted to have "shuddered in sibilant horror" (Sawyer-Lauçanno, p. 64) upon his recital of Amy Lowell's poetry. Firmage C1. Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, E. E. Cummings: A Biography, 2004. Octavo. Original blue wrappers. Spine laid down with a couple small sections missing but text retained, wrappers toned, creasing to front wrapper, minor loss to corners. A good copy. …