Poems Composed in Prison. A Selection of Verse written at various intervals in the course of a period of Five Years' Penal Servitude.

FIRST EDITION, printed note from the author tipped to half-title, pp. viii, 74, 12mo original grey wrappers printed in red to front, a few spots, the backstrip sunned, very good. A scarce book. The printed note tipped to the half-title explains the circumstances of their composition during a five year sentence for forgery committed whilst an Income Tax Claim Examiner. The work is offered, Bonchord humbly submits, not for 'any intrinsic merit' but as a 'rough little human document [.] of the penal establishments of England'; in respect of the latter, it might be noted indeed a pencilled note at the foot of the letter records the fact for us that the author was a Scot, more specifically an Orcadian, an extraction referred to most directly in the poems 'The Orcades' and 'Kirkwall Bay (from Dartmoor)'. It was likely his Orkney origins that attracted the attention of George Mackay Brown, who wrote a piece on this book in 1954. The author's assessment of his verse is mostly just, though he is clearly educated, but he is also correct in supposing its interest.…