Books

Octavo, 188pp. A crisp, clean copy, very good or better, with some wear to the crown, and the spine gently faded; else crisp and sound. In a near fine price-clipped dust jacket (possibly supplied?), gently sunned on the spine. First edition of this combined edition, Edelstein's "third edition" with a revised note of acknowledgment. One of 2000 copies printed. Edelstein A4c. Presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title page "For Richard Hammer, / Poesie d'abord! / Poesie toujours! / F(rancis) Carco - Wallace Stevens Nov. 6, 1952." With the recipient's signature on the front free endpaper. Our supposition is that the recipient was Richard Hammer, the author and journalist, who passed away at the age of 93 in 2021. At the time this book was published, Hammer was a graduate student at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, Stevens' home town. Among Stevens's scarcest books signed, as he died just three years after publication. An unusually spirited and lengthy inscription, to boot--desirable thus. Edelstein A4c.