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21 CUMMINGS, E. E. Tulips and Chimneys. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1923 Cummings’s poetic debut SIGNED First edition, first printing, of the author’s first book of poetry, signed on the front free endpaper and scarce thus. Tulips and Chimneys includes several enduring poems such as “In Just- / spring when the world is mud- / luscious . . . ”, as well as two poems on the First World War (“The bigness of cannon / is skilful . . . ” and “O sweet spontaneous / earth . . . ”). Cummings’s first book was The Enormous Room (1920), a novel based on his internment by the French during the war. His experience of prison did not destroy his love of France, and after hostilities ended he returned to live in Paris between 1921 and 1923, there writing much of the poetry that would make up this volume. In this first book Cummings’s avant-garde approach is already clear. “His eccentric use of grammar and punctuation are evident . . . though many of the poems are written in conventional language. ‘The language of Tulips and Chimneys , . . . like the imagery, the verse forms, the subject matter, and the thought, is sometimes good, sometimes bad,’ wrote Robert E. Maurer in the Bucknell Review . ‘But the book is so obviously the work of a talented young man who is striking off in new directions, groping for original and yet precise expression, experimenting in public, that it seems uncharitable to dwell too long on its shortcomings’” ( The Poetry Foundation ). Octavo. Publisher’s buckram-backed brown paper boards, printed paper label, top edge brown, others untrimmed. New York bookseller’s ticket to rear endpaper. Spine title label a little rubbed around edges, tips somewhat worn, but a remarkably fresh copy, some minor offset tape marks to endpapers, otherwise clean within and sound, very good indeed overall. £3,750 [153770]
affair. The first and second edition contained 30 and 37 poems respectively; this third was expanded to 48. The fourth edition of the following year was halved in size with only 24, making this third the most complete edition. For the Crosbys, see previous note. Octavo. Original presentation vellum, hand-painted titles to spine and border to sides, yapp edges, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, silk page marker loosely inserted. With the original wrappers bound in. Title page vignette in red. Spine a little soiled, page marker detached but retained, contents clean and bright; a near- fine copy. ¶ Minkoff A3-c; Geoffrey Wolff, Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby , 1976. £3,750 [144892] 20 CROSBY, Harry. War Letters. Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1932 FRESH CONDITION First edition, one of 125 copies only, of this posthumously printed collection of Harry Crosby’s letters written home to his family during his traumatic, formative war experiences serving as a volunteer in the American ambulance corps. Crosby had ended his own life in a dramatic suicide pact the year before this book’s publication. The calf binding is particularly susceptible to wear and this is an unusually handsome example. Octavo. Original calf-backed marbled boards, titles gilt to spines with raised bands and olive morocco title labels, marbled endpapers. Photographic portrait frontispiece showing Crosby in his military uniform. Very light wear to extremities, an attractive, fresh copy. £2,500 [153795]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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