Books

London: David Nutt, 1913. First edition. Hardcover. This is an elusive prize - the first edition, first printing, first binding state of Robert Frosts first published book, signed by the author. First published in England in 1913, the publication history of A Boys Will is complicated by the fact that the reported 1,000 first edition sheets saw two issues in four variant bindings. These many iterations were bound and sold over a period of three decades, owing in part to the bankruptcy of the original publisher (Nutt) and sale of remaining first edition sheets during the subsequent liquidation. It is estimated that no more than 350 copies and plausibly as few as 284 were issued thus, in the publishers original shiny bronzed brown pebbled cloth used to bind the first books that appeared. Known to Frost bibliographers and collectors as binding A, these copies were bound by the Leighton-Straker Bookbinding Co. before 1 April 1913. Rendering this copy of binding A even more compelling than…

A Boy's Will, Robert Frost's first published book of poetry, introducing themes that would recur throughout his work.

The first edition of 'A Boy's Will' was published by David Nutt in 1913 and features a brown cover with gilt lettering.