Description
First edition of Van Zorn: A Comedy in Three Acts by Edwin Arlington Robinson, inscribed to Kermit Roosevelt, the son of President Theodore Roosevelt and important association in Robinson’s storied career.
Octavo, [10], 164pp, [8pp ads]. Maroon cloth, title in gilt on spine and front cover. The first printing is identified by the top edge gilt, which appears on this copy. (Hogan, 49). Internally clean. Bookplate of Bella Kermit Roosevelt on front endpaper. Housed in custom cloth clamshell, title in gilt on spine over a black morocco label. From the Edwin Arlington Robinson collection of John William Pye, with his association bookplate.
Inscribed on the first free endpaper: “To Kermit Roosevelt, with the best wishes of E.A. Robinson / March 28, 1914.”
While studying at Groton School, Kermit Roosevelt, the son of President Theodore Roosevelt, discovered a copy of The Children of the Night by Edwin Robinson. Kermit liked the writing and sent a copy to his father at the White House in 1905. President Roosevelt inquired about Robinson and discovered he was struggling with debts in New York. He soon invited him to the White House for a visit and secured him a paid position with the New York Custom’s house, which covered his debts and allowed him to continue his writing. Roosevelt also reviewed Robinson’s poetry in the periodical, The Outlook, and secured contacts for Robinson with his publishers at Scribner’s.
Robinson would go on to win three Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Literature four times.
