New Hampshire

BY Robert Frost
Book Information1/1/0/US/HH/1923/o.5,350  •  225x146x15  •  343  •  Pulitzer'24

This is the first edition of Robert Frost's New Hampshire, published in 1923 by Henry Holt, the collection that won him the first Pulitzer poetry prize in 1924. This copy is missing the scarce dust jacket. The book is bounded in dark grey-green paper board backed by dark green linen cloth. The title on the front board is printed on a gold paper label, and the letters on spine are gilt. The bottom of the spine is the printer (Henry Holt) device that has faded somewhat. The book is illustrated by four woodcut etchings by J. J. Lankes. The publisher's record indicated that there were 5,350 copies of this first printing.


This sombre collection contains many of Frost's well-known works, including "Fire and Ice", which some reckon depicts the hell in Dante's Inferno, and "Nothing Gold Can Stay". The best work, in my opinion, is "Stopping by Woods in a Snowy Evening", an allusion to the allure to give up in the face of adversity that somehow always reminds me of John Nash's remarkable recovery from paranoid schizophrenia in "A Beautiful Mind".

--- "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, | But I have promises to keep, | And miles to go before I sleep, | And miles to go before I sleep."




The book is bounded in dark grey-green paper board backed by dark green linen cloth. The title on the front board is printed on a gold paper label.

This is the first pages of Frost's work and a woodcut of a tree.


The frontis woodcut on the verso and the full title page on the recto.


The copyright page on the verso. Note that the first edition has the line "Printed October, 1923" but the actual publication date was 15 Nov 1923.

The verso is a blank page and the recto is the first content page.


These are the second and final content page and a half-title page.


This is the first poem of the book on page 3.

This is the page for "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".

This is the frontispiece and one of Lanke's four woodcut.
This is the unnumbered page 18 woodcut of pine trees under the stars.
This is the unnumbered page 76 woodcut of country road.


The is the final unnumbered page 114 woodcut of grindstone beneath a tree from which hangs a scythe.


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