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Robert Frost Exhibit Labels
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A Boy's Will
1913
London, David Nutt
First edition, fourth issue.
Bound in cream-colored paper wrappers.
Presentation inscription (1935) on half title:
To Emma May Laney
this my very first
Robert Frost
A Boy’s Will
1913
London, David Nutt
First edition, first issue.
Pebbled bronze cloth binding.
Inscribed on title page: Commending it to the
McCain Library of Agnes Scott
to take better care of it than
I myself have kept.
Robert Frost
January 28, 1960
WOOD ENGRAVING
by J.J. Lankes
"Mower"
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North of Boston
[1914]
London, David Nutt
First edition, sixth issue
Presentation inscription on fly leaf:
Have I not walked without an upward look
Of caution under stars that very well
Might not have missed me when they shot and fell?
It was a risk I had to take - and took.
Robert Frost
To Emma May Laney
Ripton Vermont
September 1945
Selected Poems
1923
New York, Henry Holt and Company
June 1927, printing
Inscribed on fly leaf:
Robert Frost
South Shaftsbury
Vermont
and later inscribed:
For the McCain Library
many years later
January 1955
- 8 -
West-running Brook
[c1928]
New York, Henry Holt and Company
Were that star shining there by name
As vast as men of science claim
All I could say would be the star
Would surely have to be as far
As men of science also claim
To shine with such a tiny flame
Prove A by B then B by A
Things prove each other in a way-
Robert Frost For Emma May Laney
One thousand copies of West-running Brook have been specially printed and bound, and have been signed by the Author. Of these nine hundred and eighty copies are for sale.
This copy (Number 872) is Marjorie’s Robert Frost
[Marjorie was the poet’s daughter.]
WOOD ENGRAVING
by J.J. Lankes
"The Brook"
"West-Running Brook"
"A WINTER EDEN"
Five stanzas of the poem appearing in West-running Brook, written in ink, on one sheet of notebook paper.
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A WITNESS TREE
[c1942]
New York, Henry Holt and Company
First Printing
Presentation inscription on fly leaf:
To Emma May Laney
from her friend Robert Frost
Cambridge 1945
WOOD ENGRAVING
by J.J. Lankes
"The Witness Tree"
PERIL OF HOPE
A manuscript copy of 16 lines, written in ink, given by the poet for the Agnes Scott collection in January, 1961.
In the published version in In the Clearing the poem has been reduced to 12 lines, and there are some changes in wording.
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Steeple Bush
[1947]
New York, Henry Holt and Company
Trade edition, with dust wrapper.
Presentation inscription (1948)
on title page:
Robert Frost to Agnes Scott
A Way Out. A One Act Play
[1929]
New York, The Harbor Press
The first separate limited edition, published May 29, 1929.
With glassine wrapper.
Four hundred and eighty-five copies printed at the Harbor Press of which
this is No. 481.
Presentation inscription on fly leaf:
For Emma May Laney if she will accept the damaged copy of this my only
prose play so far Robert Frost
Ripton Vermont
September 1945
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PENCIL AND WATERCOLOR Drawing of Webster’s Corners September 2, 1931.
Inscribed:
Our Derry Place
1900-1910 R.F.
New Hampshire.
Hanover, New Hampshire
New Dresden Press, 1955
"This first separate edition of Robert Frost's poem New Hampshire is limited to 750 numbered copies" signed by the author Robert Frost. Copy number: 197
Inscribed on title page:
For Agnes Scott from Robert Frost Jan 26. 1956
- 15 -
Christmas Cards
One of the most interesting and valuable parts of any Frostiana collection is the series of Christmas cards which the poet and his friends sent over the years. Most of those in our collection were the gift of Mr. Frost himself.
In 1929 four friends of Mr. Frost used as a Christmas greeting the poem "Christmas Trees" which had been previously published in 1916 in the poet’s book entitled Mountain Interval.
In 1934 the poem "Two Tramps in Mud-Time" was used as a greeting card by Mr. and Mrs. Frost and five friends. This poem was included in the collection entitled A Further Range, published in 1936.
The card for 1935 bearing the poem "Neither Out Far Nor In Deep," also published in A Further Range, was sent by the Frosts and seven friends.
Cards containing Frost’s poems were published each year from 1934 until 1962 with the exception of 1936 and 1943 when no cards were issued. The poems used for these greeting cards were hitherto unpublished poems with the exception of the one for 1961, "The Wood Pile" which was included in the poet’s second published book, North of Boston.
In the Agnes Scott collection will be found cards for each year, with complete sets of cards for the years 1941, 1944, 1945 and every year from 1947 through 1962 with the exception of 1953, for which one card is lacking. A set consists of one card from Mr. Frost and one card from each of the friends and relatives who used the card for that particular year. In every case the poem is exactly the same, the only difference being in the printed name of each person who used the card as his or her greeting.
The number of friends and relatives using the Frost card as a Christmas greeting steadily increased until in 1961 the card was used by the poet and twenty friends.
Adapted from Robert Frost at Agnes Scott College, by Edna Hanley Byers, 1963
"KITTY HAWK"
Robert Frost considered “Kitty Hawk” to be the most important and most deeply philosophical poem he wrote during his later years. Working on it with great care, he subjected it to many revisions and expansions. The first appearance was in booklet form as the poet’s Christmas greeting for 1956. This version contains 128 lines. The fifth and final version, 471 lines, appeared in In the Clearing [1961].
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PHOTOGRAPH (103/8” by 133/8”) by C. R. Pugh, Jr., at Agnes Scott College, January, 1956.
Inscribed:
Robert Frost to them all at Agnes Scott- great college January 28 1957
FOR COLUMBUS DAY
A manuscript of 84 lines, on four sheets, written in ink.
Inscribed:
Robert Frost
As read at Agnes Scott March 3, 1951
This poem was published in The Atlantic Monthly of June, 1951, with the title "And All We Call American," and in In the Clearing the title was changed to read "America Is Hard to See." There is a little variation in the wording of the poem in the different printings.
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GOLD FOR CHRISTMAS
Collection contains six manuscript pages representing various early drafts of this poem. The poet intended to publish it in In the Clearing as a character sketch, in the form of a dramatic monologue. But he was not satisfied with it, at the time he sent his manuscript to the publisher, as so "Gold for Christmas" was held out.
This first sheet, sixteen lines, is entitled "Gold for Christmas."
This seems to be an early draft.