EBONY AND CRYSTAL: POEMS IN VERSE AND PROSE.
[Auburn, California]: [Clark Ashton Smith], 1922. First Edition (& 1st printing). Octavo, original red cloth, front panel titled in gold. 152 pp. Printed in a limited edition of 500 numbered copies, this being copy #432. Although most copies were signed by Smith on the limitation leaf, this copy is numbered but not signed. There are several minor corrections in the text in Smith's hand. Inner hinges cracked as usual with this book (the text block is side stapled to the endpapers which generally pull away from the first and last leaves), recto of first leaf and verso of last leaf tanned as usual, a bright, nearly fine copy, in a fine example of the dust jacket which was printed much later (see note below). This is the first unsigned copy of Ebony and Crystal which we have encountered. Item #313025
The author's third book, printed at The Auburn Journal, the local newspaper office in the small California town where Smith lived. While awaiting publication, Smith drew a dust jacket illustration for the book; however, once he received the errantly bound edition - stapled into cloth covers without proper endpapers - his disappointment was such that he did not bother to have the dust jacket commercially produced. The illustration remained - unknown - for many years in the collection of Smith's agent, Roy A. Squires, who had contemplated reproducing it for the anniversary of Smith's birth, but Squires died before that time. In 1995 Terence McVicker - who had possession of the original artwork - undertook the project and had 299 copies reproduced by color lithography on fine art paper by Aurora Graphics. 299 copies were produced - 275 for sale. The jacket, scaled by Smith to fit the book and with title and author in Smith's hand, is a fine recreation of the dust jacket as envisioned by Smith in 1922.
Price: $450.00