Mar 07, 2024 - Sale 2661

Sale 2661 - Lot 154

Price Realized: $ 7,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
FROST, ROBERT. Two items: Autograph Manuscript Signed, his poem entitled "Acceptance" * Autograph Letter Signed, sending the poem. The poem, with holograph title, beginning "When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud / And goes down burning into the place to go . . . ." In the lower margin is typed the following: "The above is an original poem written by the Poet, Robert Frost and presented to Mrs. Herbert J. Foote, to be read at a meeting of the Woman's Club of Lincoln New Hampshire. October 19, 1926." The letter, to "My dear Mrs. Foote," suggesting that an unpublished poem would be preferable to a mere letter, hoping the handwriting is legible, and hoping the club will like it. Each 1 page, 7x5¾ inches, each written on personal stationery (the poem with letterhead on verso); remnants of mounting at all edges verso, slight even toning and faint scattered foxing to poem, folds. (SFC) Sugar Hill, NH, [1 October 1926]

Additional Details

1 October 1926: "I thought perhaps an unpublished poem would mean more than a letter. I hope you will be able to read my handwriting smoothly after a little practice. And I hope the club will like the poem. It goes with the pleasantest memories of your part of our program together at Littleton and best wishes to you all over the mountain."
There are a number of word choice differences between the present and published versions of "Acceptance," beginning with the second line, which in the published version reads: "And goes down burning into the gulf below."
"Acceptance" was published in Frost's collection, West-Running Brook, by Henry Holt and Company in 1926.