A MASQUE OF REASON

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1945. First edition, ASSOCIATION COPY WARMLY INSCRIBED BY ROBERT FROST TO A FRIEND AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY, SIGNED AND DATED 1945 in the year of publication. 8vo, publisher’s original navy blue cloth lettered in gilt on the spine. In the original dustjacket. [6], 23, [1 blank] pp. A fine copy, the book wonderfully preserved, the navy cloth near pristine, the jacket with only very slight age mellowing and a small chip at tip of the spine. FIRST EDITION AND A FINE AND PLEASING SIGNED ASSOCIATION COPY, inscribed by Frost to Virginia Proctor, secretary to Harvard President James Byrant Conant. Though Frost tenure at Harvard was short, his friendship with Mrs. Proctor lasted well beyond his years in Cambridge. It was President Conant who first cited Frost as "The Poet of New England" when Frost was given an honorary degree of Litt.D. in 1937. In 1938 Frost resigned from Amherst and was elected to Harvard's Board of Overseers and that year also saw him placed in the English department at the university. Conant reappointed Frost for the years 1939 through 1942. Though Frost's formal ties with Harvard would end in that year, his association with Virginia Proctor would continue for years following. The inscription on this 1945 publication reads, "To Virginia Proctor / For all her kindness and friendship / Robert Frost / Bread Loaf (VT.) 1945"
FIRST EDITION. Published on the occasion of Frost 70th birthday this poem in the form of a verse play was such an extreme departure from Frost’s earlier forms and style that it startled many of his devoted readers. They may have found a challenge in his change of thought and theme, but no loss in the intensity of his feeling or the mastery of his technique.