I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Autograph Poetry in the English Language
New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973. Item #00827
Poetry In Original Manuscript
[CROFT, Peter John, editor]. Autograph Poetry in the English Language. Facsimiles of Original Manuscripts from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century. Compiled and Edited with an Introduction, Commentary and Transcripts by P. J. Croft. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, [1973].
First American edition. Limited to 1,500 sets. Two folio volumes.
Original green cloth and paper over boards. A mint set. In the original dust jackets and slipcase.
A monumental documentary survey of English-language poetry as it was first conceived on the page. The work reproduces 197 autograph manuscripts, ranging from medieval verse to modern poetry, each presented in high-quality facsimile and accompanied by authoritative biographical commentary and diplomatic transcription. The manuscripts reveal the poets’ working methods - erasures, revisions, marginalia, and variants—offering direct insight into the creative process unavailable in printed texts alone.
Long regarded as a standard reference for scholars, collectors, and curators, Autograph Poetry in the English Language remains one of the most ambitious and successful attempts to chart the evolution of poetic expression through original handwritten sources, and an essential cornerstone in the study of literary manuscripts and autograph material.
Price: $250.00