U.S. 1.
Rukeyser, Muriel. U.S. 1. New York: Covici Friede, (1938).
8vo.; endpapers darkened; blue cloth; extremities bumped; blue topstain; dust-jacket; rear panel darkened; edgewear; top edge lightly chipped. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition of Rukeyser’s second collection; the title “derives from Miss Rukeyser’s intention eventually to produce an evaluation of the Atlantic coast of the United States in terms of the U.S. highway which runs down it from Maine to Key West, and in terms, also, of the people and movements which have made the seaboard the most varied and exciting in the world. This volume contains several poems that will become a part of this evaluation” (dust-jacket flap).
A presentation copy, inscribed on the front endpaper: For Nell Posner, my friend’s friend. Muriel Rukeyser March, 1938. With two short letters to the poet David Posner loosely inserted. An autograph note from Rukeyser to David Posner at Harvard University, August 1945, tells him that a record he apparently sent her was warped—“so warped that the needle would leap half across the circle, and nothing could be heard. I want to hear your song: it is very tantalizing. And I want to hear how you are. Do write. Best, Muriel.” An autograph letter dated December 1956, reads in part: “…The Deserted Altar means very much to me, and of course I shall be glad to sponsor your Guggenheim application; you should have it…Do come and see me as soon as you can…I think it may be the year for you. Affectionately, Muriel.”
After graduation from Harvard, Posner matriculated at Oxford, where in 1954 he won the prestigious Newdigate Prize for poetry. He never returned to the United States, living in Cambridge until his death in 1997. His prodigious collection of books was dispersed in 1998 by the Cambridge booksellers Deighton Bell. We assume the recipient, Nell Posner, was David’s mother and this book devolved to him at her death.
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