The Poet and the Messenger

San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1945 Book. Fine. Hardcover. First edition. One of 250 copies printed for the author. Very scarce. Printed in Franciscan handset type on French handmade paper. Foreword by Benjamin Putnam Kurtz. Quarto. Pp. [ix], [x, blank]. plus 15 leaves printed on rectos only. Initials by Mallette Dean on title and throughout text in red; decoration on title, opening lines of dedication, numbering of poems, all in turquoise; opening initial of foreword in gold; colophon printed in red, printer's device in turquoise. Orange decorated boards, white vellum back lettered in gold. Bookplate, minor offsetting to endpapers. A very fine copy. A quite lovely example of Grabhorn printing in three colors plus the gold initial. No copies of the book were signed because of the untimely death of the author Ray, a very well-known local (California) poet. Ray dedicated the book to Chester Barlow, the founder of the Cooper Ornithological Club of California. The foreword is by Benjamin Kurtz, a well-known author and Professor of English at the University of California. This beautifully printed Grabhorn Press limited edition is not to be confused with the general trade edition titled, "The Poet and The Messenger, Dune-Glade and Other Poems." [Grabhorn: 418]..