Robert Graves & Siegfried Sassoon

[Dust Jacket Collector]

 Apart from Silkin, is there any semblance of a bibliography of war poetry out there??

There certainly is. Catherine Reilly's 1978 'Poetry of the First World War : a bibliography', which listed some 2,225 published poets & has been an invaluable source of information for me and others over the years. She also compiled an anthology of women poets of the War, 'Scars upon my Heart'.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

There certainly is. Catherine Reilly's 1978 'Poetry of the First World War : a bibliography', which listed some 2,225 published poets & has been an invaluable source of information for me and others over the years. She also compiled an anthology of women poets of the War, 'Scars upon my Heart'.

 

   Ah yes, buried deep down in my memory-  I hope Sir is down to single figures in completing a set of inscribed copies of the entire canon!!

 

(Oops- and the picture on Abe reminds me that I have a copy of this buried away amongst a store of unused reference books-Mea Culpa)

Edited 20 July , 2017 by Guest

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Ah yes, buried deep down in my memory-  I hope Sir is down to single figures in completing a set of inscribed copies of the entire canon!!

Fortunately, the majority of the poets she lists only get the odd poem in an anthology or a magazine. I've restricted myself to the 16 commemorated in Poets Corner plus a few others I, arrogantly, consider worthy of inclusion. There was a lot of truly awful stuff printed at the time. Signatures tend to come as a bonus, usually when some amateur dealer has failed to open the book they're selling!

And I usually contact the seller these days to ask "when you say first edition are you sure it doesn't say '5th printing' after it"!

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Fortunately, the majority of the poets she lists only get the odd poem in an anthology or a magazine. I've restricted myself to the 16 commemorated in Poets Corner plus a few others I, arrogantly, consider worthy of inclusion. There was a lot of truly awful stuff printed at the time. Signatures tend to come as a bonus, usually when some amateur dealer has failed to open the book they're selling!

And I usually contact the seller these days to ask "when you say first edition are you sure it doesn't say '5th printing' after it"!

 

      Ah-but at least one of my colleagues has a way around that- 5th printing?   -"First edition thus" (Well, it is the "first edition" of the 5th printing). I had a customer once- a wealthy Canadian collector of Churchill- His assistant carried his own print-out version of the Woods bibliography-while the man himself carried a micrometer to measure paper thicknesses and thus identify "variant" printings over and beyond Woods. Your mania has a long way to go yet. Give it time.

[Guest]

   DJC- On a small point-   Do we (that actually means "you"!) have any idea of about the dispersal of the library of Eddie Marsh-where, when,what it contained. I was surprised that a zap of ABE with Keywords Edward Marsh Presentation threw up a few signed presentation copies by him- mostly La Fontaine. Interestingly, usually inscribed to ladies-in spite of Eddie Marsh's reputation.  What I also found intriguing was his use of a pseudonym, as evidenced by one copy of La Fontaine on offer. Do we have any idea of why Marsh used the name "Billy Brass" or how often he used it to others??  Pray pardon my ignorances-both general and specific.

 

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FORTY-TWO FABLES OF LA FONTAINE

Marsh [Edward] (translator)

Published by William Heinemann, London (1924)

Used Hardcover First Edition Signed

Quantity Available: 1

From: Old Hall Bookshop, ABA ILAB PBFA BA(Brackley, United Kingdom)

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Item Description: William Heinemann, London, 1924. Vellum Paper Boards, Book Condition: Good. No Jacket. Limited Edition. Limited edition of 165 copies, of which 15 are for presentation, this copy number 12, signed by Edward Marsh, also inscribed in Marsh's handwriting "To Sonia Clark with best wishes from Billy Brass Jan 1925" viii, 89pp, pages untrimmed, quarter vellum and paper boards, covers stained, foxing to endpapers. Sir Edward Marsh (1872-1953), Civil servant, author and man of influence, worked for many leading politicians, in particular Winston Churchill. Size: 8v0. Fiction. Bookseller Inventory # 009369

Edited 23 July , 2017 by Guest

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Sadly, GUEST, I can't help with either query. Christopher Hassall's mammoth biography of Marsh makes no mention of the pseudonym or of Sonia Clark (not in the index anyway). I wonder how certain they are that it's his handwriting. As to his library, it's probably mouldering away in the basement of some Texan university.

[Guest]

On 23/07/2017 at 21:40, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Sadly, GUEST, I can't help with either query. Christopher Hassall's mammoth biography of Marsh makes no mention of the pseudonym or of Sonia Clark (not in the index anyway). I wonder how certain they are that it's his handwriting. As to his library, it's probably mouldering away in the basement of some Texan university.

 

       That's OK- I suspected you might be one step ahead of  Hassall. Berg/NYPL has the "composite" collection of papers -nearly 6000 items but the lack of reference to a library sold in toto or extenso suggests that it was dispersed- Marsh was characteristically generous in giving away books, so it may be that his library was not that great. But the number of books inscribed to Eddie Marsh that have popped up suggests there was a tranche of stuff somewhere, sometime.  I think that pseudonym "Billy Brass" may be one to tuck away- suspect it will turn up again.   John Townsend at Old Hall, Brackley is a very pleasant veteran bookseller-it may be worth a call to him. 

[Guest]

DJC- By the way, the same trawl  for Eddie Marsh threw up G.F.Sims Catalogue 85 (1974) which has:

 

       Edward Marsh's interleaved copies, bound together, of Rupert Brooke's 1911 Poems and 1914 and Other Poems (fifth impressions), with Marsh's "copious and extremely interesting" notes, £250; 

 

    Pardon my ignorance (again) of the war poets and their legacy-but do we have any idea where this went or where it is now?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Edward Marsh's interleaved copies, bound together, of Rupert Brooke's 1911 Poems and 1914 and Other Poems (fifth impressions), with Marsh's "copious and extremely interesting" notes, £250; 

I read that and my first thought was 'that looks really interesting, I must buy it', until I noticed it was years ago. Not seen any trace of it, probably gone to a rich American. It would be fascinating to see it.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

I read that and my first thought was 'that looks really interesting, I must buy it', until I noticed it was years ago. Not seen any trace of it, probably gone to a rich American. It would be fascinating to see it.

 

     Possible- but one of the great pleasures of books- for both collector and dealer-is you just never know what is going to turn up. So keep them eyes peeled!!

[Dust Jacket Collector]

   DJC- On a small point-   Do we (that actually means "you"!) have any idea of about the dispersal of the library of Eddie Marsh-where, when,what it contained.

I chanced to glance into a recent edition of The Book Collector which gives the following helpful information. Eddie Marsh's Brooke collection was left to his heir, Brooke's biographer Christopher Hassall. He then sold them to a King's college alumnus & collector, John Schroder. These were then bought by the King's College library in 2015 with the help of a grant of over £400,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. A satisfactory conclusion, I think.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

I chanced to glance into a recent edition of The Book Collector which gives the following helpful information. Eddie Marsh's Brooke collection was left to his heir, Brooke's biographer Christopher Hassall. He then sold them to a King's college alumnus & collector, John Schroder. These were then bought by the King's College library in 2015 with the help of a grant of over £400,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. A satisfactory conclusion, I think.

 

     Good morning- and thank you. I usually only see "Book Collector" when piles of back issues go for next to nothing at auction and I buy them just for general browsing-never been a subscriber.  I must catch up with the story- Do you have the issue number of "Book Collector" to hand?  What an interesting story- can't say I knew anything about it's recent history or noticed anything on GWF about this acquisition by King's 

 

     Well, missed that story completely-  there is-now that I look-quite a good introduction to the King's Brooke collection at

 

http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/introduction-archives/problematic-collection/index.html

 

    An interesting piece- and very discreet language used throughout. The whole question about Brooke's posthumous reputation  and his standing as both poet and Adonis is a fascinating one-one of my quiet interests of the Great War-that is, how the historiography changes across time. The good thing about the stuff you like Alan is that often the provenance trail and the history of what has happened to the books/papers is actually more interesting than the original material itself. 

Edited 27 July , 2017 by Guest

[Dust Jacket Collector]

I'm not a subscriber - I find it a little too 'antiquarian' for me. The issue in question was from August of last year and is available as a free download from their subscription page. The information was merely a snippet in the lead article by their editor called 'Mania and Imagination'.

Thanks for the link to the King's Brooke collection - that should keep me occupied and envious for a few hours.