The Poet and the Messenger.
San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1945.
4to. With initials by Mallette Dean in red and numerals in blue. Original quarter vellum and patterned paper boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, bookplate on front pastedown. A near fine copy with a hint of wear to the boards.
§ One of 250 copies printed at the Grabhorn Press. The first printing of a collection of poems by Milton Ray "an arresting comment upon the United Nations Conference, addressed as much to the profit-mad man on the street as to the power-mad leaders of people".
"Milton Smith Ray, born 1881 in San Francisco, is best remembered for his role as an engineer and local industrialist whose family company, the Ray Oil Burner Company, played a major role in the evolution of steamship engines through their oil burner/piston pump. The company had enormous success and Ray lived comfortably until his death in a mansion built by Henry Clay Smith at 2901 Broadway in San Francisco. The house sits on a hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay on a lot Ray purchased in 1925 from future president, and at the time his fellow student, Herbert Hoover. His affluent life as an industrialist enabled Ray to pursue his other passions as well: history, poetry, oology, and ornithology." (Milton S. Ray papers. UC Berkeley, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology). Item #126837
Price: $75.00