[ Desmond Harmsworth, publisher. ] Two printed catalogues: 'A First List' and 'Spring Books | Nineteen Thirty-Two'.

Author: 
Desmond Harmsworth [ Cecil Desmond Bernard Harmsworth (1903-1990) ], publisher, 44 Great Russell Street, London, WC1 [ Ezra Pound; James Joyce; Mary Butts ]
Publication details: 
Desmond Harmsworth, 44 Great Russell Street, London WC1. 1931 and 1932. [ The first 'Printed by George W. Jones, At the Sign of The Dolphin, Gough Square, London, EC4. ]
£80.00
SKU: 16748

Two stitched pamphlets of uniform design. 15pp., 12mo, and 19pp., 12mo. Tastefully printed, with covers in red and black. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. The first volume - 'A First List' - has a full-page 'Advertisement' by 'D. H.', in which he aspires to 'offer a fair proportion of what is alive in modern writing - a hope which is my raison d'etre as a publisher [...] nothing, if not lack of sense, or lack of the desire, need stop one from printing whatever is available, and has intrinsic vitality or permanence'. An interesting couple of catalogues, reflecting Harmsworth's commitment to modernism with its references to Joyce, Pound, Huxley, Herbert Read and Mary Butts. Entries for each title in the two catalogues include a paragraph of text. The titles in the first volume (one of which at least was unpublished, and two at least published by other publishers) are: The Norman Douglas, 'Summer Islands'; Havelock Ellis, 'Essays and Reviews'; Ian Dall, 'Here are Stones'; 'Other Fronts' ('an unsigned book by a well-known author which is certain to cause considerable controversy', apparently unpublished); Lucy Watkin, 'Unholy Music'; Ezra Pound, 'How to Read'; Yvonne Cloud, 'Nobody Asked You' (published in 1932 by the Willy-Nilly Press); Pierre Louys, 'Sanguines'; Julian Hanchant, 'Strange Visits'; Philip Lindsay, 'Ruffians Hall'; Douglas Goldring, 'The Fortune' (preface by Aldous Huxley); 'The Benefits Moral & Secular of Assassination | By the Author of Charity as a Career for Girls' (published by Charles Lahr in 1932); Maurice Lane-Norcott, 'Should a Man Tell'; Frederic Carter, 'The Dragon of Revelation'; 'Hobby Horse: A Series of Pamphlets' and 'Victoriana: A Series of Reprints'. The second volume contains a further range of works, including 'Traps for Unbelievers' by Mary Butts, and 'James Joyce and the Plain Reader' by Charles Duff, with a 'Prefatory Letter' by Herbert Read. It also includes some of the titles from the first catalogue, with quotations from reviews.