A Masque of Reason, a presentation copy inscribed and dated by Frost to the wife of stained glass artist Charles Connick on Easter 1945, six days after publication

Robert Frost

Published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1945

About this Item

This is an author's presentation copy of the first trade edition, first printing of one of iconic American poet Robert Frost s precious few dramatic works. This copy is inscribed, signed, and dated by Frost within days of publication. Frost s inscription is inked in black ink in four lines on the front free endpaper recto: "To Mabel R. C. Connick | from her friend | Robert Frost | Easter 1945".Easter 1945 fell on 1 April, six days after the 26 March publication of this first trade edition (timed to coincide with Frost s 70th birthday). The subject and publication timing of A Masque of Reason create some interesting parallels with the inscription herein. Mabel Robinson Coombs Connick married Charles Jay Connick in 1920. Charles Connick, Frost's contemporary, died in December of 1945, aged 70. The gift of Frost s theological play, on Easter no less, was apropos; Boston, Massachusetts-based Charles Jay Connick was known best as a stained glass artist "who worked primarily in ecclesiastical designs" and "revived techniques and designs of English and French designers of the Middle Ages."Condition of this inscribed presentation copy is very good plus in a very good plus dust jacket. The binding is square, clean, tight, and sharp-cornered, marred only by light shelf wear to extremities and some unobtrusive mottling to the lower boards, potentially from brief and superficial moisture exposure. The contents are clean, age-toned but with no spotting or soiling. The unclipped dust jacket retains its original "$2.00" upper front flap price, is complete, with no appreciable loss, and remains bright, with no discernible toning of the brightly hued spine and front face. The jacket shows some modest soiling, mostly to the white rear face, and light wear to joints, flap folds, and extremities. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover. Iconic American poet Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) is "generally not known as a dramatist despite his lifelong love of the theater and despite the fact that many of his best poems owe a large part of their greatness to their dramatic nature… Frost s most important plays, however, may be his two masques, A Masque of Reason (1945) and A Masque of Mercy (1947). Though both pieces have been staged, they are best considered as closet dramas in which distinctly human, American, and modern prototypes engage in theological/ideological debate via colloquial blank verse…. In A Masque of Reason, Frost dramatizes a confrontation between God, Job, and Job s wife Thyatira. Job and Thyatira press God for an explanation of Job s seemingly unwarranted torture, ultimately eliciting the surprising confession, I was just showing off for the Devil. …Frost s God runs the risk of sounding smug, cruel, and cavalier, yet he seems to serve as spokesperson for Frost s own philosophy on the relationship between humanity and God. As Peter J. Stanlis observes, the main thrust of Frost s theme is a criticism of the human error of reading man s own rational nature into God. " A Masque of Reason was published at a time when his stature had risen to an apex sufficient for publishers and his reading public to indulge his literary experiment. By 1945, Frost had already won all of his still-unrivaled four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry (1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943). Frost spent the final decade and a half of his life as "the most highly esteemed American poet of the twentieth century" with an accumulating hoard of academic and civic honors. Two years before his death he became the first poet to read in the program of a U.S. Presidential inauguration (Kennedy, January 1961). Reference: Crane A27.1; Tuten and Zubizarreta; Smithsonian; ANB.

Seller Inventory # 008607

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Masque of Reason, a presentation copy inscribed and dated by Frost to the wife of stained glass artist Charles Connick on Easter 1945, six days after publication
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
• Publication Date: 1945
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition, first printing.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Other Poetry
  • Other Signed & Inscribed