Handmade book containing seven manuscript love poems.
Bound and dedicated to Anne Longfellow Thorp. [10], [2] pages. Small octavo, 66 1/4x5 3/4 inches, 16x14 1/2 cm, hand-stitched blue paper with mounted linocut of peacock printed in blue and orange on front cover; endpapers of blue paper with circular linocut bird design mounted in centers, covers fragile, separated, and with light chipping along outer edges; internally fine. Dedicated "For A.L.T/From MAY/Noel 1930." [Cambridge].
Presented by Sarton as a Christmas gift to Anne Longfellow Thorp, her teacher at Shady Hill School, lifelong friend, and the granddaughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Four of these poems were published in the December, 1930 issue of Poetry magazine which was Sarton's first appearance in print. Evidence that she was working on this gift book in late November is found in a letter to her parents on the 30th, in which she requests "bright blue Japanese" and "beautiful Italian paper for my poetry books," and describes the peacock and bird decorations. Sherman, Susan; editor, May Sarton: Selected Letters, 1916-1954 (Norton, 1997).
