Jun 17, 2021 - Sale 2573

Sale 2573 - Lot 211

Price Realized: $ 20,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
FROST, ROBERT. Collected Poems. 8vo, publisher's gilt-stamped brown cloth, slight lean, few light stains; front hinge cracked. First edition. Author's presentation copy, signed twice by Frost, and with the entirety of perhaps his most famous poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" accomplished by him in holograph in black ink on the recto of the portrait frontispiece and differing slightly from the published version ("neer" misspelling in line 6, and "give" for "gives in line 9). Inscribed on the front flyleaf "For Unade and Howard and / Elizabeth Seckerson / from their guest friend / Robert Frost / March 15 1939 / Storrs." The "guest friend" mention is a nod to Frost's several short stays at the Seckerson's home when in Storrs to give a reading. Howard Seckerson started the English Department at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and his wife Unade Seckerson (née Barnes) was the daughter of Djuna Barnes' half-brother Duane. We trace a small number of inscribed Frost editions featuring this poem sold at auction with one stanza or just the last verse in Frost's hand but finding the poem complete as here makes this of great significance, further enhanced by an excellent provenance. New York: Henry Holt and Company, (1930)