#a first edition signed by my favorite poet for only $250?!

[rosepompadour]

My heart is a locket and your face is in it.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, July 1911

#i found a signed first edition of conversation at midnight while i was sorting through the cheaper books at work today #and god the GASP i let out #a first edition signed by my favorite poet for only $250?! #i told my boss he could easily sell it for three times that price #and he said 'i didn't even know we had that and judging by the look on your face right now i don't think it could go to a better home.' #so bottom line i have a signed first edition by my number one girl on my nightstand right now #'i know not how such things can be; i only know there came to me vincent millay for two fifty.' 💗 #edna st. vincent millay #literature

[uwmspeccoll]

Summer Solstice 2022

Today marks the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and the first day of Summer! While some in our office consider this a sad day as it means the days will only get shorter from here on out, we’re choosing to think positively and celebrate the vibrant blooms of summer that can be found all around us. Here we have The Rose-Bud, the Rose and the Thorn by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). 

Published in 1994 by the Incline Press in an edition of 250, the book features rose printers’ ornaments, an engraving of a linnet resting in a briar by Ann Tout, and hand marbled cover paper by Ann Muir in “the colours of the budding rose.” Our copy is signed by Graham Moss, the proprietor of the Incline Press, and was a gift of our friend, Jerry Buff. 

The poems by Robert Burns all feature the rose as a key image. My favorite is “My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose":

My luve is like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June; My Luve is like a melodie, That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my Dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; And I will luve thee still, my Dear, While the sands ‘o’ life shall run.

And fare-thee-well, my only Luve! And fare-thee-well, a while! And I will come again, my Luve, Tho’ ‘twere ten thousand mile!

I especially like the part about rocks melting in the sun. That’s pretty metal for an 18th century love poem! 

Have a lovely solstice and try not to think too hard about the days getting shorter!

View other posts on works by the Incline Press.

View more Summer Solstice posts.

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

#Summer Solstice #Robert Burns #Poetry #love poems #roses #flowers #rose-bud #Incline Press #Ann Muir #Ann Tout #Jerry Buff #Marbled paper #marbling #engraving #women engravers #Graham Moss