Thomas, Edward ~ The Last Sheaf

Jonathan Cape, London : 1928

The First UK printing published by Jonathan Cape, London : 1928. 8vo., dark green cloth lined and lettered in gilt to spine; publisher's device embossed in blind to lower board; together in the publisher's unclipped wrapper (6s. net) printed in red and black; The BOOK aVery Good++ or better copy, slightly bumped at spine ends with a hint of darkening to edges of boards; endpapers faintly offset with light spotting to the fore-edge; seemingly unread, with the first page of the foreword unopened; the Very Good++ WRAPPER seldom found thus, with some overall shelf toning, affecting spine and folds, a little associated rubbing and spotting. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. A publisher's 4 page advertisement slip for the upcoming publication of 'America Comes of Age' by Andre Sigfried is loosely inserted. A collection of essays which include 'How I Began', 'Chalk Pits', 'Tipperary', 'Swansea Village', and 'The Friend of the Blackbird'. Published posthumously, the collection has been compiled by Julian Thomas, his brother, with the papers taken from Edward's various contributions to critical journals preceding his death in France in 1917. The introduction is provided by Thomas Seccombe, who writes that Thomas's life of one "who knew and loved England, its inhabitants and writers, old and new, better than any man I came across... a born prosemaster, whose love of this country was as generous as it was instinctive." Best known today as a war poet, Thomas's prolific and sadly short writing career included essays, travelogues, topographical descriptions, reviews, critical studies and biographies. He was killed in action at the Battle of Arras in 1917. Scarce in the wrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++
JACKET: Very Good++