Poems (with long George Sterling inscription)

Item Details

San Francisco, The Strange Company, 1910, Paper covered boards, velum spine

First printing, Very good

91pp. First edition. San Francisco, 1910.Soiling to covers. Contents near fine. Full page manuscript presentation by George Sterling.

Nora May French (1881-1907) began a career as a poet when she joined the Arroyo Seco, a group of writers and poets who, under the tutelage of Charles Lummis, regularly contributed to Lummis' Out West magazine. Her writing was praised by Mary Austin who encouraged her to relocate to Carmel. In 1906, following the earthquake of April 18, she arrived in San Francisco and was immediately welcomed into Carmel Arts and Crafts Club by Bohemian luminaries, George Sterling, Gilett Burgess, James Hopper, Ambrose Bierce, Xavier Martinez, Charles Rollo Peters, Henry Lafler, Charles Dichman and Jack London.  

In November of 1907 Nora Joined George Sterling and his wife Carrie at their home in Carmel. She had been despondent following a recent self-inflicted abortion. On November 14, at the age of 26, Nora died after ingesting cyanide.

Against the wishes of her parents, in 1910 George Sterling and Harry Lafler published Nora's poems in a small edition which was distributed among her admirers.