Tulips and Chimneys

New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1923 First edition, first printing. Publisher's three-quarter brown paper-covered boards, buckram spine, and label to spine printed in black. Very good, with light toning to spine, a touch of staining to spine label, a touch of rubbing to spine ends, bottom right corner of front board worn to boards, heavy offsetting to endpapers, critic and translator Samuel Putnam's bookplate to front pastedown, some light staining to pp. 28-29, and a small closed tear to p. 55. With a laid-in handwritten copy of "A Man of Words and Not of Deeds" by Percy B. Green, written in an unknown hand. Overall, a pleasing copy of Cummings' first collection of poetry. Tulips and Chimneys is Cummings' first poetry collection and second book overall, published after his autobiographical debut novel, The Enormous Room (1922). The book is divided into two sections "Tulips" and "Chimneys"; "Tulips" includes experimental poetry, which would become Cummings' hallmark, while the relatively short "Chimneys" section consists of more conventional sonnets. Some notable poems in the collection include "Thy fingers make early flowers," "All in green went my love riding," and Cummings' longest poem, "Puella Mea." This copy was owned by American critic and translator Samuel Putnam, who was the first to translate Don Quixote in contemporary English in 1949. Putnam authored Paris Was Our Mistress (1947) - a memoir about the American expatriate writers and artists living in Paris during the 20s and 30s. Cummings was an integral part of that so-called Lost Generation and lived in Paris on and off throughout that time. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good.