Printer’s Proof Copies

A Considerable Speck.

[Boston: Printed by Dard Hunter, Jr, 1939].

Price: $6,000.00


About the item

Proof copies of the first separate edition. 2 proof copies: one uncorrected page proof of the 33-line poem, without the printed title page, and with printer’s manuscript corrections and directions in red ink; and one final proof copy, with "Original Proof" printed on title-page; both uncut on cream wove paper watermarked "HANDMADE”. 2 single folio gatherings (380 x 285 mm). Printer’s Proof Copies. Some minor smudging and marginal soiling to uncorrected proof; final proof is fine. Laid in a custom green cloth chemise. Crane A24.

Item #237379

Laid in is a photocopy of the handbill titled “The Colonial Society of Massachusetts” detailing the poem’s history: “This poem was written and delivered by Fobert Frost at the Annual Dinner on November twenty-first, 1939. It has been printed by Mr. Dard Hunter, Jr. from the first font of type that he has cut and cast himself, and is one of the first pieces of printing. It is on hand-made paper, made by him and his father, an authority on paper, with whom he is associated at the Dard Hunter Paper Museum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology....”

A Considerable Speck was first printed in the Atlantic Monthly in July, 1939. The first separate edition consisted of fewer than 100 copies, according to Crane. These proofs are extremely rare, if not unique.