About this Item
The sole UK issue, Privately printed at the University Press, Cambridge in 1954. Small 8vo., red cloth over marbled red and gold paper-covered boards, lettered in gilt to spine; together in the original glassine wrapper; The BOOK is a little sunned at the spine and rubbed at the edges of boards; a little spotted to the fore-edge and final couple of leaves; The BOOK is in Very Good ++ condition in the very good Glassine WRAPPER in very good condition, which is seldom found at all and which is a little creased and chipped to spine tips. The glassine is protected in a removable Mylar cover. Sole UK impression of this incredibly scarce work, limited to just 100 numbered copies printed for Siegfried Sassoon and Geoffrey Keynes. (Keynes A56). This copy number '11', inscribed to a 'Richard' at the colophon, with Sassoon's cipher 'SS' beneath [Keynes does not call for this]. A collection of twenty four poems, written between 1952 and 1954, which show 'a greater spiritual awareness and sense of inwardness than any previous volume' (Wilson, p. 383). 'Sassoon had hoped to arrange the poems as a sequence, but eventually had to accept that they were 'separate condensations or considerations.merely an exhibition of the spiritual and intellectual shortcomings of a man trying to find things out for himself' (ibid, p. 384). The book was privately printed with the assistance of noted book designer John Dreyfus, author of 'A History of the Nonesuch Press' (1981). Predominantly known today for his war poems, Sassoon continued to write long after the end of the Second World War in 1945. He became increasingly involved in politics, took up a post as literary editor of the socialist newspaper the 'Daily Herald', and travelled extensively throughout Germany. He began to branch into prose, with 'Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man' appearing in 1928, and 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer' and 'Sherston's Progress' appearing a few years later. By the time these poems had appeared in 1954, Sassoon had married (and separated from his wife), celebrated the birth of his only son, George, and converted to Catholicism. The verses reflect an introspective view on the changing nature of his life and relationships, and include such poems as 'Faith Unfaithful'; 'The Humbled Heart' and 'Human Bondage' Very rare with such attributes. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.
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