IN THE CLEARING

New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962. FIRST EDITION. No. 850 of 1,500 copies. 248 x 157 mm. (9 3/4 x 6 1/4"). 1 p.l., 101, [1] pp., [1] leaf.
Publisher's tan buckram, spine printed in black and gilt. In the original black paper slipcase (in excellent condition). SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on the limitation page. Front pastedown with ex-libris of the Rev. John Annas Jr. with gift inscription from John III. Crane A41. An extremely fine copy.

Issued just 10 months before the poet's death, this is a signed, limited-edition copy of the last collection of his poetry published during Frost's lifetime. "Even in his final volume," Britannica notes, "so filled with the stubborn courage of old age, Frost portrays human security as a rather tiny and quite vulnerable opening in a thickly grown forest, a pinpoint of light against which the encroaching trees cast their very real threat of darkness." It famously contains the poem composed for John F. Kennedy on the occasion of his inauguration--though Frost actually recited from memory another poem, as the sun that day interfered with his ability to read from his manuscript. Among the many copies of this collection available, this one is especially desirable because of its fine condition..