Artemis To Actaeon And Other Verse

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909. First Printing. Hardcover. Fine. First (and only) Edition of Wharton's scarce second book of poetry, although the most obtainable. (Only a dozen copies are known of her first book of poems, Verses, privately printed and published anonymously in 1878, and only 130 copies of the third, Twelve Poems.) Crown 8vo (190 x 127mm): [6],90pp. Publisher's dark grayish green (almost black) T cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, front cover with elaborately framed gilt vignette of cherubs, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Wanting the scarce dust jacket. Touch of shelf wear along bottom edge, else a superb survival, very tightly bound and virtually pristine throughout, apparently unread. Garrison A17.I.a. Brenni 126. Davis, p.13. Also published by Macmillan in London the same year, which Garrison (A17.I.b) designates the second printing. In Paris, in January, 1907, Wharton met for the first time the American journalist William Morton Fullerton, who had been the Paris correspondent of the London Times since the 1890s. Wharton soon discovered that she and Fullerton not only shared literary and intellectual interests but also a circle of American friends that included Henry James. Thus began a silent, secret courtship between the two. In her thrall, she returned to Artemis and Actaeon, the unfinished collection of poems begun in 1902, and added two written with Fullerton in mind, "The Mortal Lease" and "Life." In these, her most ambitious poetic endeavors, she reexamines her initial confusion and inability to act and acknowledges her sexual vulnerability. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).