THE POEMS OF ROBERT FROST with AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT POEM

New York: Modern Library, (1946). Hardcover. Very Good in a Very Good dustwrapper. Reprint of this popular collection which features Frost's essay on poetry, "The Constant Symbol," as an introduction. This copy has been SIGNED by the author and INSCRIBED to minor poet and folklorist Addison Barker with the complete eight-line poem "The Pasture," the first poem in the book, in the poet's hand on the page opposite the title page. The recipient's signature is on the front endpaper above a pasted newspaper photograph of Frost, and Barker has noted on the title page the date Frost wrote the poem in the book: 25 January 1950. Barker has an interesting connection to Frost in that in 1951 he published the discovery of the very first appearance in print (BLUM'S FARMER'S AND PLANTER'S ALMANAC FOR 1850) of the proverb "Good fences make good neighbors." Barker tried to find an earlier, New England appearance before publication in the North Carolina almanac but was unsuccessful. There were previous variants on the proverb, but none exactly as Frost used it. Even without this academic aside to an entirely different poem, "The Pasture" is one of Frost's best known poems and not commonly encountered, complete, in manuscript form.