70
71 MILLAY, Edna St Vincent. Renascence and Other Poems. New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1917 the first issue of the poet’s debut collection, signed and in superb condition First edition, first printing, first issue, signed by the author on the half-title. This exceptionally fine copy has an appealing literary association, with the bookplate of publisher Donald S. Friede (1901–1965). Edna St Vincent Millay’s lyric poem “Renascence” came to prominence when she entered it into a poetry competition in The Lyric Year in 1912. The award of fourth place caused a scandal and both first and second place winners announced their support of Millay. After being expelled from Harvard, Princeton and Yale, Donald S. Friede tried nine jobs in three years before becoming a stock clerk at the publishing firm of Alfred A. Knopf. Deciding that his interests lay in publishing, Friede in 1925 bought a half interest in Boni and Liveright (which had been responsible for the publication of the 1922 first edition of Eliot’s The Waste Land ) and became the firm’s vice president at the age of only 24. In 1928 Friede founded the firm of Covici, Friede, etc. with Pascal Covici. The firm would publish E. E. Cummings, Radclyffe Hall, and (prominently) John Steinbeck.
70 MANSFIELD, Katherine. Prelude. Richmond: Printed and Published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, [1918] An exceptional copy First edition, sole printing, one of 300 copies hand-printed by the Woolfs. This is a copy in exceptionally good condition: this scarce and fragile early Hogarth Press title is usually found rebound, repaired, or otherwise in less-than-ideal state. Woolmer notes that a few copies only were issued with a line block by J. D. Fergusson on the front wrapper. The block had been selected by Katherine Mansfield, but Virginia Woolf disliked it and it was dropped from the great majority of copies, as in this copy. The original intention was that Prelude would be the second publication of the Hogarth Press, but they set it aside to publish Poems by C. N. Sidney Woolf, so that it was the third book published by the press. Octavo. Original blue wrappers, titles to front wrapper in black, untrimmed. Housed in a custom blue cloth chemise and blue quarter morocco slipcase. Spine a touch sunned and overlapping edges creased as usual, else a fine copy, two negligible nicks, the wrappers strikingly vivid, internally fresh. ¶ Woolmer 2. £6,750 [150010]
INEXHAUSTIBLE LIFE
50
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker