A BOY'S WILL

London: David Nutt, 1913. First Edition. Hardcover. A spectacular copy with an exceptional association. Original bronzed brown pebbled cloth, gilt-lettered on the front cover. Crane A2: First Issue, Binding A of Frost's first book. Less than 350 copies of the first issue in the first binding were issued, from a total edition of 1,000. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "To William Stockhausen/this a first of my first/Robert Frost/and pleased to meet it/again so fresh after all/these years/Dec 26 1960." In addition on the front endpaper is the pencil ownership signature of Henry James, Jr. with a 55 East 65th St. address. According to the SOTHEBY PARKE BERNET catalog of THE WILLIAM E. STOCKHAUSEN COLLECTION, 1974, "this copy is most certainly from the library of Henry James the novelist. The owner name is in the hand of his nephew Henry James but appears to be an identification of source. The nephew inherited a large part of the novelist's library on the author's death in 1916. He never used either Jr. or Henry James II but his uncle did use the latter. Since this is evidently not his own ownership inscription it appears to be more than likely that he wrote it to identify those books which had come from his uncle's library." A copy of NORTH OF BOSTON also inscribed to Stockhausen had a similar ownership signature. This copy of A BOY'S WILL was last on the market in 1977, and a letter from the well-known bookseller to the buyer is laid in. Housed in a cloth chemise and handsome brown morocco-backed cloth slipcase.