First edition, first printing of Millay's first collection — published the year the poet graduated from Vassar by special petition, following her suspension for various and creative forms of bad behavior.
Near fine.
Price: $1,250.00
"I am but flesh and blood and I must sleep."
Millay first composed the titular poem at 19 and submitted it to a contest sponsored by publisher Mitchell Kennerly, for which it won fourth prize and was published in the annual THE LYRIC YEAR. The fame she won from the poem, and some public outcry against the judges' failure to award it first prize, were put to good and immediate use, with one evening's recitation impressing listener Caroline Dow into offering Millay her patronage and financial support at Vassar. After four fruitful years of tormenting college administrators and writing lyric poetry, her first book was published and the poet departed for Greenwich Village to become a legend and, a few years later, the first woman and second poet awarded the newly established Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Though Yost distinguishes between two "editions," and most booksellers describe two "issues" of the first edition, it is clear from Yost's entry that what are typically termed "issues" are almost certainly better called "printings," given that they are on different paper stocks and the second includes corrections. Scarce.
Read more: Yost, A Bibliography of the Works of Edna St. Vincent Millay, 3; Brooks-Motl, "Edna St. Vincent Millay: Renascence," The Poetry Foundation.
First printing. New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1917. 7.5'' x 5''. Original gilt-lettered black cloth. AGM Glaslan watermark paper (and all other points as called for in Yost). [x], 74, [4] pages. Light wear and a bit of rubbing to cloth, bookseller ticket to front endpaper. Some offsetting from binder's glue to rear hinge. Else clean and sound.
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