INSCRIBED TO A GLOUCESTERSHIRE FRIEND Recognition of Robert Frost: Twenty fifth Anniversary

Elaborately inscribed by Frost to an ‘old old friend’ from his time in England with the Dymock Poets in rural Gloucestershire just before the First World War. Writing on the first flyleaf Frost has inscribed the book ‘For Robin Haines of Gloucester from his old old friend Robert Frost once of not far from Gloucester, Amherst Mass, November 27 1937’. Robin Haines was the son of the Gloucester solicitor John W Haines who became close to Frost during his Gloucestershire years - Haines’ son Robin would have been a baby when Frost first met him so the poets’s phrase ‘old old friend’ should probably be taken as a joke. Frost’s affection for Gloucestershire was not a joke; this period was formative for him in his poetic practice and brought intense friendships with other young literary men, notably Edward Thomas and Lascelles Abercrombie. An excellent association copy.

Large octavo attractively bound in green buckram; small bump to the top edge of the text block; internally very good. In a good jacket; toned with a small chip at the head of the spine and spotting to the blank lower panel of the jacket.