CUMMINGS, E. E., and others.

£4,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Eight Harvard Poets. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Cummings on the first blank to his French translator, "inscribed, with pleasure, for Jon Grossman by E. E. Cummings", one of only six copies which include a typescript of Cummings's anti-war poem "The Casualty List, 'Dead on the Field of Honor'", tipped in after page 10. We can trace only one signed copy in auction records, and none inscribed.Cummings wrote the poem, originally titled "From a Newspaper", at Harvard in 1914. His father typed up and inserted the poem into a few copies of Eight Harvard Poets, "as if the poem were accidentally left out of the anthology. This seemingly small gesture of a father's proud yet enthusiastic endorsement of his son's works tells of the important bond between father and son regarding Cummings' future creative output" (Huang-Tiller, p. 274). A note in Cummings's own copy by one of his literary executors explains that his father tipped the poem into just six copies.This copy was originally presented in December 1917 by Cummings's father, inscribed by him on the front free endpaper: "Dear M. Hill, Perhaps these verses will tell you a little about the lad. I inserted the typewritten verses because they show his feeling towards France. Gratefully yours, Edward Cummings. Dec 17, 1917".David Jonathan Grossman (1922-1990) first met Cummings in 1941-42 and was awarded the Prix Halperine-Kaminsky for his translations in 1980.Eight Harvard Poets was printed in an edition of 500 copi

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