Cummings, E.E.

Is 5

New York, NY: Boni & Liveright, 1926. First Trade Edition. Hardcover. "When the Dial Award (1925) for distinguished service to American letters was given to E.E. Cummings it paid recognition to one of the most astonishing careers in American literature. Within a brief five years E.E. Cummings has won ranking among the foremost living poets. By his daring inventiveness which made mere typography an instrument of real literary power he challenged attention; but critics unwilling to grant typography an important role, were held by other qualities, a sensuous command of words unequalled in modern literature, a robust and joyous freedom of attitude, an imagery at once fresh and exact. At thirty-two Cummings confronts us, a writer of recognized genius, mature and flawless workmanship, the author of five notable books." (front flap) The fifth published work, & fourth collection of now-classic poetry, by E(dward) E(stin) Cummings (1894-1962), the canonical American poet, playwright & painter. Offered here is the first trade edition of 1926, hardcover in very scarce unclipped dust jacket, first (trade) edition, first printing, though neither explicated as such at copyright page; published simultaneously with a "special limited edition" of seventy-seven numbered & signed copies as noted on colophon at recto of front endpaper. With all points in Firmage, A6(a), pgs. 12-14. From the collection of Dr. Stanley Hurwick Levy (1926-2020), an American physician who met & conferred with Albert Einstein while a student prodigy at Princeton University during the 1940s, & was one of the most legendarily prolific & important book collectors of them all, over many years. This writer was privileged to attend a presentation & meet Dr. Levy at his home here in Michigan some years ago, & was indeed astonished by the size, variety & qualilty of his esteemed collection. A foundational Cummings collectible in its rarest (especially with jacket) contemporary trade form, with very distinguished provenance & in especially fine relative condition: Book with only light rubbing to front, back covers & spine; mild-to-moderate wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; light browning to side & lower edges of text block (the former untrimmed as issued); more significant rubbing (possibly fading of black-dye?), faint scratching & light browning to upper edge of same. Interior fine with short, neatly closed tear from upper right corner onto right edge of first front endpaper/colophon page leaf; very light browning to blank white paste-downs, endpapers & page leaves (the latter esp. at blank margins/edges); one small, rectangular area with loss of blank white surface paper, residue from (very careful) tape removal at upper left rear paste-down. Unrestored, nearly century-old dust jacket relatively also quite fine with only a touch of rubbing to front, back covers, spine & flaps; very slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at/from edges & corners of same; tiny chips/short, mostly closed tears at lower spine-corners with miniscule loss of paper; several small, rectangular areas with slight loss of blank light-brown surface paper, residue from (again very careful) tape removal at/from edges of flaps; one small piece of transparent tape at lower right area of front flap (unremoved so as not to effect text); another of same at mostly blank area from lower left edge of rear flap. Fine / Fine. [Item #6135]

Price: $800.00