About this Item
This presentation copy of the first trade edition, first printing, of Frost s third Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection is inscribed, signed, and dated by Frost in the year of publication. Inked in six lines on the front free endpaper recto, Frost wrote: "To David Morton | from his kinfellow in poetry | and the teaching of it | Robert Frost | Amherst Mass | 1936".Condition is very good plus in a very good dust jacket. The red cloth binding is clean, bright, and tight with sharp corners and no appreciable wear, despite a slight forward lean. The contents are clean with no spotting, no previous ownership marks, and only modest age-toning. The red topstain retains deep, unfaded color. The interior shows two paperclip indentations and a touch of rust stain affecting the front pastedown, front free endpaper, preliminary blank, and half-title. The dust jacket is substantially complete, with minor chip losses to extremities, appreciable only at and adjacent to the spine ends. The jacket shows moderate toning, heavier to the spine and flap folds, which also have partial splits. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.The charming presentation inscription testifies to Frost s life at Amherst, home to Frost for the better part of two decades over a span of more than three. He joined the faculty in 1917 and received an honorary M.A. from Amherst the following year. He left Amherst in 1920, but returned in 1923 the year New Hampshire, his first book to win a Pulitzer Prize, was published for another two years. Frost again returned to Amherst College in 1926, remaining until 1938. Following Frost s death in 1963, his public service was held at Amherst s Johnson Chapel.A 1936 photograph taken at Frost's home in Amherst of five poets includes Joseph Auslander, Robert Frost, Audrey Wurdemann, Robert Francis, and the recipient of this inscribed copy, David Morton.American poet David H. Morton (1886-1957) turned to teaching in 1915 after an early career in newspaper journalism and remained in this profession until his death. After teaching at high schools, Morton became an English assistant professor at Amherst in 1924. He achieved full professorship in 1926, where he taught until 1945, becoming poet-in-residence at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts after leaving Amherst. He first published in 1921 and many books of poems followed, including one in 1936, the same year as this publication of A Further Range. Morton also compiled anthologies and wrote some books concerning poetry. The University of Kentucky, where he sometimes lectured, conferred an honorary Doctorate of Letters upon Morton in 1952 as did the University of Massachusetts in 1953. (Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Library Special Collections Western Kentucky University)A Further Range includes fifty-one poems and is divided into six parts. Some of Frost s best known lyrics are found herein, among them "Desert Places", "Neither Out Far Nor in Deep", and "A Leaf Treader". Although A Further Range, Frost s sixth book of poetry, went on to win the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, "it drew scathing attacks from leftist critics at the time of its publication for its conservative political cast." The political criticism polluted the literary, as politically liberal critics not only criticized the work, but "sought to diminish Frost s reputation" and cast his talent as waning. Although Frost called attention to the topicality of A Further Range "It has got a good deal more of the times in it than anything I ever wrote before" Frost was nonetheless "troubled and angered by these attacks." Perhaps "the most highly esteemed American poet of the twentieth century" Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) eventually won four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry (1924, 1931, 1937 for this volume, and 1943) and became the first poet to read in the program of a U.S. Presidential inauguration (Kennedy, January 1961). Reference: Crane A21.1, Tuten and Zubizareta pp.128-129. Seller Inventory # 007991
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Bibliographic Details
Title: A Further Range, a signed association copy, ...
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
Publication Date: 1936
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: First trade edition, first printing.
