STERLING, George.
Beyond the Breakers and Other Poems.
FIRST EDITION — SIGNED, WITH A SIGNED DASSONVILLE PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT OF STERLING LAID IN. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson, 1914.
Inscribed by Sterling on the front free endpaper: "With the compliments of George Sterling." With a pen correction to the text on page 24 in Sterling's hand — a frequent feature of this title, as Sterling habitually corrected his own poems in copies he gave away. Laid in is an original silver gelatin photographic portrait of Sterling by William E. Dassonville, signed "Sterling" in pen to the print — Dassonville's signed portraits of the poet are scarce, and the photographer moved in the same San Francisco Bohemian circle as his sitter.
Octavo. 141 pp. Printed by The Blair-Murdock Company of San Francisco for Robertson. The collection gathers sixty-one poems written largely during Sterling's Carmel years, including the title poem — dedicated to fellow Carmel bohemian James "Jimmy" Hopper — and "The Master Mariner," among a substantial group of sonnets and lyrics. Original green cloth, gilt lettering to the upper board and spine, deckled fore-edges; in the publisher's scarce original pictorial dust jacket, a black-on-cream wave design, with the original $1.25 price intact at the head of the front panel. BAL 18760; Mattila A7; Cecil Johnson, A Bibliography of George Sterling, pp. 10–11. Near fine; boards clean and square, the spine gilt slightly faded as usually seen, the interior fresh, the binding tight. The dust jacket — the genuine rarity, as most surviving copies are jacketless — is toned with light wear to the extremities but complete, the price intact.
The combination of a presentation inscription, an authorial pen correction, a signed laid-in Dassonville portrait, and the original scarce dust jacket is unusual, and unlikely to be matched in another copy on the open market.
SKU TO-2026-021
