“SOME SAY THE WORLD WILL END IN FIRE”: NORTH OF BOSTON, INSCRIBED WITH A LINE OF POETRY BY ROBERT FROST

FROST, Robert. North of Boston. New York: Henry Holt, (1926). Octavo, original half olive cloth, uncut. $4000.

Later printing of Frost’s second published book, signed and inscribed by him with a line from his poem "Fire and Ice": "Some say the world will end in fire. Robert Frost."

This volume represents a pinnacle of Frost's career, containing such classic poems as "Mending Wall," "The Death of the Hired Man," "Home Burial," and "The Wood-pile." Of it, Frost wrote, "I had some character strokes I had to get in somewhere and I chose a sort of eclogue form for them. Rather I dropped into that form. And I dropped to an everyday level of diction that even Wordsworth kept above… I think I have made poetry. The language is appropriate to the virtues I celebrate" (Thompson 428). The line Frost has inscribed here is the first line of his poem "Fire and Ice," first published in his 1923 collection New Hampshire. First issued in London in 1914. Without scarce original dust jacket. Crane A3.3. Contemporary owner signature beneath Frost's inscription; later owner stamp and book label.

Interior fine, original cloth near-fine. A handsome inscribed copy.