8vo. Half-title, 6pp. publisher's advertisements at end. Original cloth dark blue cloth decorated in black and gilt (hinges starting). 

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, measuring exactly 7/8 inches across the top. SIGNED BY MASTERS on the front flyleaf (dated 1922). Containing Master's free-verse poetry relaying epitaphs of deceased residents of the fictional Spoon River, Spoon River Anthology was the author's first named publication for creative writing. Masters, lawyer and partner of Chicago's Clarence Darrow, wrote anonymous poems prior to his publication of the Spoon River Anthology. The success of the work prompted him to quit his practice and relocate to New York to work as a writer, but his later works would never achieve the success of Spoon River Anthology.