STEVENS, Wallace. Esthetique Du Mal. A poem by Wallace Stevens with pen & ink drawings by Wightman Williams. Cummington, MA: Cummington Press 1945. First edition. One of 300 copies printed on Pace paper; one of only a few copies in rose Natsume straw-paper-covered boards. Most of the edition was issued in green Natsume paper-covered boards: "'Only a few copies have [the rose paper covers] ..., all the available green paper not quite being enough for the entire edition.'" (Unpublished letter from Harry Duncan [the publisher] to W[allace] S[tevens], November 17, 1945). Edelstein A10. In Randall Jarrell's opinion "Esthetique Du Mal" was "the best of (Stevens') later poems: As one feels the elevation and sweep and disinterestedness, the thoughtful truthfulness of the best sections of a poem like Esthetique du Mal, one is grateful for, overawed by, this poetry...." - Poetry And The Age, p.139 & 146. Grolier Club, A Century For The Century: Fine Printed Books From 1900 to 1999, 46. 8vo, original quarter black morocco & rose Natsume paper-covered boards, (original?) glassine dust jacket. A very fine copy, far and away the finest copy we have seen, preserved in a cloth folding box