[Rarebooks] FS: Robert Lowell's First Book INSCRIBED to Randall Jarrell

[Charles Agvent]

 From our recent catalog--SPRING MISCELLANY 2015--which contains 60 
select items,all new arrivals, in a variety of fields: 
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LOWELL, Robert. LAND OF UNLIKENESS Inscribed to Randall Jarrell. 
(Cummington, MA): Cummington Press, 1944. First Edition. Publisher's 
blue boards stamped in orange, title page printed in red and black with 
woodcut in blue by Gustav Wolf. Housed in a half blue morocco leather 
slipcase. Introduction by Allen Tate. Lowell's scarce first book, 
limited to a total of 250 copies printed. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the 
author on the front free endpaper to poet Randall Jarrell: "For 
Randall/with affection and admiration/and no apologies for dogma,/Cal." 
Lowell was nicknamed Caligula at preparatory school, and the diminutive 
"Cal" stuck with him throughout his life. Lowell and Jarrell met at 
Kenyon College, where they were roommates, and became lifelong friends, 
each providing valuable criticism of the other's work. In 1965, Lowell 
eulogized the friend who had been one of two beneficiaries of his will: 
"Randall Jarrell was the only man I have ever met who could make other 
writers feel that t heir work was more important to him than his own." 
Along with the copies Lowell presented to John Crowe Ransom--at the 
University of Texas--and Allen Tate--in a private collection--this is 
one of the three most compelling association copies imaginable. Small 
ink date of 1944 at the bottom right corner of the title page, likely in 
Jarrell's hand. Mild sunning to the spine which has a small, neat repair 
at the head; lacking the plain tissue dustwrapper. Near Fine in a Fine box.

Allen Tate, in his introduction to this collection, tempers his praise 
with a fair assessment of Lowell's current stature and potential, 
heralding a lasting presence in American poetry: "The history of poetry 
shows that good verse does not inevitably make its way; but unless, 
after the war, the small public for poetry shall exclude all except the 
democratic poets who enthusiastically greet the advent of the 
slave-society, Robert Lowell will have to be reckoned with." Two years 
later, Lowell would win the Pulitzer Prize for LORD WEARY'S CASTLE, at 
the age of 30. (#017848) $10,000.00

http://www.charlesagvent.com/shop/agvent/017848.html

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