33 “A Great Slob Of A Man In Violent Revolt Against The Entire 20th Century” “Better Than Granite, Spoon River, Is The Memory-Picture You Keep Of Me” 40MASTERS, Edgar Lee. Spoon River Anthology. New York, 1915. Small octavo, original blue cloth, custom chemise, slipcase. $5500 First edition, first issue of Masters’ celebrated poetic examination of virtue and vice in the American heartland, signed by him. Masters envisioned the work—over 200 short, free verse poems voiced by dead residents of the fictional Spoon River, Illinois—as “a kind of Divine Comedy,” representing a full range of humanity from the noble to the foolish, the saints and—in particular— the sinners. Without very scarce dust jacket, glassine. A fine copy, rarely seen in such beautiful condition. Signed By Robert Frost 41FROST, Robert. The Complete Poems. New York, 1950. Two volumes. Tall octavo, original dark blue cloth, custom slipcase. $3400 Signed limited edition, one of 1500 copies signed by Frost, additionally signed by famed typographer Bruce Rogers and New England illustrator Thomas W. Nason. “The most highly esteemed American poet of the 20th century… [In 1957] T.S. Eliot toasted Frost as ‘perhaps the most eminent, the most distinguished Anglo-American poet now living’” (ANB). Without scarce and fragile original glassine dust jackets and original slipcase. Very slight toning to cloth spines. A nearly fine copy. 39TOOLE, John Kennedy. Confederacy of Dunces. Baton Rouge, 1980. Octavo, original beige cloth, dust jacket. $7200 First edition of Toole’s posthumously published, Pulitzer Prize-winning satirical novel—”nothing less than a grand comic fugue”—one of only 2500 copies printed. “A masterwork of comedy… A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities …. nothing less than a grand comic fugue” (New York Times). One tiny rub to dust jacket rear panel. A beautiful copy in about-fine condition.
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