STEVENS, WALLACE. Harmonium. 8vo, publisher's 1/4 cloth-backed cloth over light blue boards; dust jacket, spine panel toned and split neatly along folds, small chip near head with corresponding tape ghost on verso; Hartford bookseller's ticket on rear pastedown. New York: Knopf, 1931
second edition, third binding, inscribed by stevens. The inscription reads: "The basis of poetry is response" and is dated "Sept. 14, 1943." If one could condense Stevens's particular approach to literary creation into a single sentence, this could certainly be it, and is all the more remarkable considering Stevens signed very infrequently, with inscribed copies appearing even less often. The complete printing of the second edition consisted of 1,500 copies, which were bound over a period of thirteen years. The last inscribed copy traced at auction the Neville copy (sold, Sotheby's New York, Apr 13, 2004, lot 212, $8,500). Edelstein A.1.b.
