
Thomas, Edward ~ Collected Poems : With The Scarce Wrapper in Exceptional Condition
Selwyn & Blount, London : 1920
The First UK printing published by Selwyn & Blount, London in 1920. There was also a limited edition on Japon issued. The BOOK is in near Fine condition. Light pushing at the spine ends and a tiny bump to the lower rear corner. The printed label to the spine is complete and clean. Free from inscriptions. A very small barely discernible Toronto bookseller stamp to the lower front blank end-paper edge. A hint of dustiness to the upper text-block. Tissue guarded B/W photographic frontis of Edward Thomas by F.H. Evans present. The WRAPPER is complete and is in near Fine condition. Correctly priced '10/6 Net' to the spine. Light toning to the spine with some light tape residue to the verso which is visible to the front but does not detract from what is, a wrapper in exceptional condition. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. This posthumous collection, includes a few war poems written before Thomas' death at the Battle of Arras in 1917. A ten page Foreword by fellow poet and friend Walter de la Mare. De la Mare memorialises his friend thus : 'Thomas has true lovers today; but when the noise of the present is silence - and the drums and tramplings of the war in which he died - his voice will be heard far more clearly; the words of a heart and mind devoted throughout his life to all that can make the world a decent and natural home for the meek and the lovely, the true, the rare, the patient, the independent, and the oppressed'. The foreword precedes 136 poems, essentially combining the content of 'Poems' (1917) and 'Last Poems' (1918) (See Eckert listing pp. 246). An exceptional copy with the rare wrapper, with only one such copy having appeared at auction in the last 30 years.
BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine
£2750