The printing and publishing history of this work is complicated; details are given by Joan St. C. Crane, Robert Frost: A Descriptive Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library, University of Virginia (Charlottesville, 1974), entries A21, A21.1, and A21.2.
First edition (U.S.)
Two copies of a prospectus for the work, and one copy of a postcard announcement, were removed from copies of the first and second printings and placed in file, with call number: File RFA 36.2 1936 prospectus.
| RFA 36.2 1936 | First printing (“Limited edition”; 803 numbered, signed copies published May 20, 1936; issued in a glassine dust jacket, in a slip-case). * Copy 1 is no. 599; in slip-case. Gift of Margaret Olds Strahl. * Copy 2 is no. 43; instead of signing in the limitation statement, following “signed by the author,” Frost has written “elsewhere in this copy,” and has inscribed the volume to George F. Whicher (Class of 1910), “in the name of friendship, June 1936”; with Whicher’s bookplate; in dust jacket, in slip-case; a copy of the prospectus has been removed and placed in file with call number: File RFA 36.2 1936 prospectus. Gift of the Estate of George F. Whicher. * Copy 3 is unnumbered but signed; one of several such copies in the unsold stock of the publisher in 1990; in dust jacket; in slip-case. Gift of Henry Holt and Co. * Copy 4 is no. 108; as in copy 2, Frost has written “elsewhere in this copy” in the limitation statement, and inscribed the volume “For the McKeons [Newton F. McKeon (Class of 1926) and his family] from the Frosts in all friendship”; in slip-case; a postcard announcement of the work, with rubber-stamped address of the Gotham Book Mart, has been removed and placed in file with call number: File RFA 36.2 1936 prospectus. Gift of Mary Maury McKeon. * Copy 5 is no. 597; from the library of E. Porter Dickinson; in slip-case. Gift of the Estate of E. Porter Dickinson. * Copy 6 is no. 389; inscribed by Frost “To Edward Fox for having brought me out with the political pastoral on page 85”; Frost had spoken “Build Soil” at Fox’s invitation as the Phi Beta Kappa poem at Columbia University on May 31, 1932; spine defective. Gift of Margaret Fox Hutchinson, Barbara Fox Doubleday, and Robert Y. Fox (Class of 1955), in memory of their father, Edward B. Fox. |
| RFA 36.2 1936b | Second printing (first trade printing, with “First Printing” on verso of title leaf). 7 copies. * Copy 1 has the bookplate of George Frisbie Whicher (Class of 1910); in dust jacket. Gift of the Estate of George F. Whicher. * Copy 2 is inscribed by Frost to Jack W. C. Hagstrom (Class of 1955) “on our way to Grand Central Station and so on for me back to Cambridge”; with Hagstrom’s bookplate; a copy of the prospectus, initialed by Frost, has been removed and placed in file with call number: File RFA 36.2 1936 prospectus. Gift of Jack W. C. Hagstrom. * Copy 3 is inscribed by Frost for H. Kauti, Ripton, Vt., 1943, with the full text of “Lost in Heaven” (with one variant from the published text); in dust jacket. Gift of the Estate of Martin K. Howes (Class of 1926). * Copy 4 is one of several copies of the first printing that remained in the publisher’s stock in 1990; in dust jacket. Gift of Henry Holt and Co. * Copy 5 is a review copy, with publisher’s information slip inserted, giving the date of publication as May 29, 1936; with the signature of E. Merrill Root (Class of 1917). Gift of Mrs. E. Merrill Root. * Copy 6 has the ownership signature of Eugene T. Mudge (Class of 1934); in dust jacket. Gift of Mrs. Eugene T. Mudge, in memory of Eugene T. Mudge. * Copy 7 is inscribed by Frost for Hugo T. Saglio (Class of 1931), with 4 lines from “Lost in Heaven”; in dust jacket. Gift of the Estate of Hugo T. Saglio. |
| RFA 36.2 1936c | Third printing (second trade printing, with no statement of printing on the verso of the title leaf, and a blank leaf before the half-title). 3 copies. * Copy 1is signed by Frost; with the ownership signature of Marie P. Cobb, “from CWC. Aug. ’36” (i.e. from her husband, Charles Wiggins Cobb, Class of 1897). Gift of the Family of C. W. Cobb. * Copy 2 is from the library of Rolfe Humphries (Class of 1915), with his signature, dated July 1936, and with his pencil notes passim. Gift of Rolfe Humphries. * Copy 3. Source unknown. |
| RFA 36.2 1936d | Fourth printing (third trade printing, a selection of the Book-Of-The-Month Club in June 1936, with no statement of printing on the verso of the title leaf, and a blank leaf following p. 120). 1 copy. * Copy 1. With the bookplate of Jack W. C. Hagstrom (Class of 1955); in dust jacket; accompanied by a Book-Of-The-Month Club flyer with Christopher Morley’s comments about the work, “reprinted from the May Book-Of-The-Month Club news” (removed and placed in file with call number: RFA 36.2 1936d flyer). Gift of Jack W. C. Hagstrom. |
Second edition (England)
| RFA 36.2 1937 | Only printing (with “First impression 1937” on verso of title leaf). 3 copies. * Copy 1 has the bookplate of George Frisbie Whicher (Class of 1910); in dust jacket. Gift of the Estate of George F. Whicher. * Copy 2 is inscribed by Frost for Harold J. Baily (Class of 1908), Boston, December 1939, with 3 lines from “A Roadside Stand”; in dust jacket. Gift of Mrs. Harold J. Baily. * Copy 3 is inscribed by Frost to Jack W. C. Hagstrom (Class of 1955), “day of the trip from Amherst to Manchester and on to Boston, Oct. 14, 1954, Cambridge”; with Hagstrom’s bookplate; in dust jacket. Gift of Jack W. C. Hagstrom. |
Braille edition
| RFA 36.2 1937.2 | “Embossed and printed for the Library of Congress, 1937.” In Grade 2 Braille. With the bookplate of Jack W. C. Hagstrom (Class of 1955). Gift of Jack W. C. Hagstrom. |