WEST-RUNNING BROOK

New York: Henry Holt and Company, (1928). First Edition. Hardcover. A short tear and slight chipping to the upper front corner of the front endpaper. The dustwrapper has a short closed tear at the top rear edge of the spine with a small chip on the spine about an inch or so down. Near Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper. Crane A10: Presumed Second State with "First Edition" printed on the copyright page. Illustrated by J. J. Lankes. Contains the title poem, "Spring Pools," and "Acquainted With the Night," among others. Laid in is an undated but contemporary letter on Holt letterhead from Leonard Blizard, a designer/typesetter with the publisher, to Dr. [Robert] Leslie, founder of The Composing Room, a leading typesetting firm of the time, and a mentor to many of the top designers of the period. The letter presents this copy of the book to Dr. Leslie with Blizard stating, "It is a 'First Printing' & we hope you will enjoy it." Crane based her bibliographic point of the "First Edition" statement on information provided by the earlier bibliographers Clymer and Green who state that "it seems more likely that copies without 'First Edition' were printed first and the oversight remedied only after the greater part of the edition had been distributed." Does this letter refute that? Alas, the possibility that the letter was laid into a different copy exists, and the language of the letter itself is not strong enough to confirm the dissent and provide a conclusive answer, but it certainly raises the question.