POETRY

Wayside Musings; or, Poems and Songs.

Author: 
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders
Publication details: 
Published by George Lewis, Printer and Bookseller, Selkirk, 1863
£225.00
James Currie, Late 79th, or Cameron Highlanders

138pp., 12mo, blue cover, corner bumped , some damage to spine, worn edges, but attractive, foxing throughout, slight hinge strain. Author's Preface gives the background to the publication including experiences at the Crimea and his daily round as Post Runner to Yair [Postman, I suppose]. Much includes dialect words, and many are based on personal experiences or current events. He includes a Burns' Centenary Song. COPAC lists copies at NLS, Glasgow and BL. WorldCat adds the University of Guelph.

Sabi Legend and Other Poems

Author: 
N.H.D. Spicer and John Spicer, with illustrations by D.J. Avery.
Publication details: 
Published by John Spicer, [Rhodesia, 1947
£125.00

31pp., 12mo, illustrated blue wraps (a warrior), contents crudely joined to wraps with sellotape, wraps sl. chipped and worn, contents mainly good. No copy listed on COPAC; four copies listed on WorldCat (3 in South Africa, and Texas).

Autograph Letter Signed ('Edmund C. Stedman') from the American man of letters Edmund Clarence Stedman to the Blackburn poet John Thomas Baron ('Jack O'Anns')

Author: 
Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), American poet, critic and essayist [John Thomas Baron (1856-1922), Blackburn dialect poet, writing under the pseudonym 'Jack O'Anns']
Publication details: 
31 January 1883; on letterhead of 71 West 54th Street, New York.
£350.00

12mo, 4 pp. Bifolium. Forty-eight lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on aged paper. Begins 'One must needs be a churl indeed to be a laggard in his response to a letter containing words of so sweet breath composed as yours!' He thanks Baron for his 'kind & encouraging letter', and considers that an author 'has no keener or more lawful pleasure than to find that the errors of his song or tale has [sic] lodged (as Longfellow says) in the heart of some far-off and unknown friend'.

[Printed pamphlet.] Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. (An Address read before the Shakespeare Association 18th March, 1927). By T. S. Eliot.

Author: 
T. S. Eliot [The Shakespeare Association, London]
Publication details: 
London: Published for the Shakespeare Association by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, E.C. 1927.
£85.00

8vo, 17 + [i] pp. Stapled. In original grey wraps. Aged and worn copy of a scarce item.

[Printed offprint of poem by J. H. Nightingale.] The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.

Author: 
J. H. Nightingale ['Joe Nightingale'] [Liverpool Daily Post, 1859]
The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.
Publication details: 
From the Liverpool Daily Post of Dec. 6, 1859.
£125.00
The "Four Liverpool Merchants" and their Letter to the Hempror Napoleon.

On one side of a piece of paper 27.5 x 11.5 cm. Text, in small type, clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper.

[Printed Prospectus] The Swallow Press and The Sonnets

Author: 
[William Shakespeare]
Publication details: 
1975
£28.00

Four pages, folio, faint browning of edges, mainly good. Specimen page has Sonnet 34. Enclosed: Order For,

Substantial Autograph Letter Signed from Herbert Palmer to Amy Cruse, discussing in detail the relative merits of his book 'Post-Victorian Poetry' and her 'After the Victorians', with unsigned autograph draft of Cruse's reply.

Author: 
Herbert Palmer [Herbert Edward Palmer] (1880-1961), English poet [Amy Cruse, English author]
Substantial Autograph Letter Signed from Herbert Palmer to Amy Cruse
Publication details: 
Both Palmer's letter and the copy of Cruse's reply undated [both circa 1938]. Palmer's letter from 22 Batchwood View, St Albans, Herts.
£185.00
Substantial Autograph Letter Signed from Herbert Palmer to Amy Cruse

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Palmer's letter: 4to, 6 pp. Text clear and complete. He begins by apologising if his letter to her 'sounded very ungracious': 'I was unaware at the time that you had made any acknowledgement to me, and as I have had my brains picked so frequently without acknowledgment (including, of course, plagiarisms from my poems) I was again feeling rather depressed & exasperated'. While describing her book as 'really [...] very good' and 'reliable', he suggests a number of changes, giving examples of 'where we clash'.

[Privately printed volume.] Winchester, and a few other Compositions in Prose and Verse. [by Rev. Charles Townsend, Rector of Kingston-by-Sea, Sussex]

Author: 
[Charles Townsend, Rector of Kingston-by-Sea, Sussex]
Publication details: 
[Privately printed.] Winchester: James Robbins, College Street. 1835.
£350.00

Townsend was a member of the Holland House circle. Two of his poems were compared favourably with Wordsworth by J. G. Lockhart. 4to, 80 pp, followed by a manuscript leaf, paginated 81 and 82, with the poems 'Sonnet, On Viewing St Paul's from Blackfriar's Bridge' and 'Sonnet | Richmond late in the Evening'. In original brown cloth boards, worn, rebacked and repaired, with 'WINCHESTER.' in gilt on front. Internally sound and tight, on aged paper. Tipped on the recto of the front free endpaper is a presentation inscription: 'With the Authors | Kind regards:- | Jany: 30th: 1837'.

Long unpublished autograph poem signed by Mrs Acton Tindal on the death of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce in 1873, beginning 'A jennet stumbled on a grassy knoll'.

Author: 
Mrs Acton Tindal [Henrietta Euphemia Harrison] (c.1817-1879), English poet [Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873)]
Mrs Acton Tindal on the death of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce
Publication details: 
Signed at end 'Mrs. Acton Tindal - Manor House - Aylesbury'.
£100.00
Mrs Acton Tindal on the death of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce

Folio, 9 pp. Unpublished. Written in landscape, with the title ('Samuel Wilberforce - DD | Bishop of Winchester | July 19th. 1873') on the first leaf and the poem on the following eight. The leaves held together with pink string. On paper watermarked 'EDWIN PARR | DULCOTE MILLS | 1861'. Text clear and complete. The commencement sets the tone of the poem, fully worthy of its subject 'Soapy Sam': 'A jennet stumbled on a grassy knoll - | And without sound or sign | Passed from Time's foremost rank a peerless Soul - | A Chief by right divine.

Autograph Letter Signed Jack Pritchard, furniture designer, to Molly [Rosemary (Molly) Cooke], his future wife, a sprightly letter with eccentric presentation about a book she apparently published anonymously .

Author: 
Jack Pritchard, British furniture designer (1899–1992).
Autograph Letter Signed Jack Pritchard, furniture designer
Publication details: 
Pembroke College, Oxford, [1921]
£125.00
Autograph Letter Signed Jack Pritchard, furniture designer

FURNITURE DESIGNER AUTOGRAPH CAMBRIDGE UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN POETRY POEMS

Original Typescript of an anonymous poem entitled 'The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation.' ['The Ludlow Alphabet. An Adaptation.']

Author: 
[The Ludlow Hunt; fox-hunting; field sports; Sir William Michael Curtis (1859-1916)]
The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. [Before 1906.]
£165.00
The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation

4to, 6 pp, with a seventh leaf carrying the title 'The Ludlow Hunt Alphabet. An Adaptation.' (The title at the head of the poem itself is 'The Ludlow Alphabet. An Adaptation.') A genuine typescript, and not a reproduction. A poem of 128 lines, divided into 32 4-line stanzas. Fair, on aged paper, with the last leaf laid down on a leaf of an autograph album, with traces of a newspaper cutting on the reverse. Consisting of playful references to members of the Hunt, arranged alphabetically. First stanza: 'A's for Allcroft, on chestnut | With frontlet of blue.

Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet', on cheque drawn on his own bank, Messrs Rogers, Olding, Sharpe & Co.

Author: 
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), 'the Banker Poet', friend of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron
Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet'
Publication details: 
30 July 1849. Messrs Rogers, Olding, Sharpe & Co, 29 Clements Lane, Lombard Street.
£125.00
Autograph Signature of Samuel Rogers ['Saml Rogers'], 'the Banker Poet'

Around the size of a modern cheque. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. A nice item, considering Rogers' background. A printed cheque for £40 cash, written out to himself (as 'S R'). With a lattice of five lines over Rogers' signature ('Saml Rogers') indicating payment. Denominations to be paid indicated on back.

Writers Against Apartheid [broadsheet magazine containing poems by MacDiarmid, MacNeice, Empson]

Author: 
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid' [South Africa; racism; Sean O'Casey; Hugh MacDiarmid; Louis MacNeice; William Empson]
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid'
Publication details: 
Printed by Villiers Publications Ltd., Ingestre Road, London, N.W.5.
£280.00
I. F. White, editor, 'Writers Against Apartheid'

Broadsheet bifolium, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. On lightly-aged paper, worn along fold lines. Poetry collection, containing twenty-eight poems by writers including 'Mazizi Kunene (In Exile, London, 1960)' and Hugh MacDiarmid, whose two poems have the footnote 'We are especially pleased to print these two new poems by Hugh McDiarmid, contributed despite the painful after effects of his recent car smash. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery.' Masthead endorsement by Sean O'Casey: 'I am with you in all efforts to create perfect race equality the world over.

Viking with a Loose Shelailleigh. Tales from Irish America. [playscript]

Author: 
Peter Dee [Peter Rogers Dee] (1939-1999), New York playwright and poet
Publication details: 
[Unpublished typescript.] [Circa 1992.]
£100.00

Photocopy of word processor typed print-out. 8vo, [ii] + 53 pp. Good. In plastic binder. Title carries Dee's address. Second page lists the twelve sections of the play. Loosely inserted is a photocopy of a long review, with photograph, from the East Hampton Star, 26 March 1992, of 'a dramatic reading' of the play at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor. The play was not published, and there are no copies of this item on WorldCat or COPAC.

The Carrionflower Writ [complete run of ten issues, from 1 to 9/10 and including 2a].

Author: 
Javant Biarujia, editor [Nosukumo, Melbourne; Ian Birks; Jurate Sasnaitis, Philip Siss; Kris Hemensley; Chris Mann; Raimondo Cortese; Adrian Rawlins; Australian literature]
Publication details: 
Melbourne ('at Labassa'): Nosukumo. 1985 to 1990.
£350.00

Each issue a single broadsheet, folded twice to make eight pages. On different light shades of paper. In good condition. An energetic collection of Australian 'poetry on the margins', with unconvential typography and striking illustration. Described, on cover of issue 3, as 'An art and literary broadsheet issued on an irregular basis'. Poets include Ian Birks, Jurate Sasnaitis, Philip Sipp, Kris Hemensley, Chris Mann, Raimondo Cortese, and Adrian Rawlins. Excessively scarce: no copies of any issues in the British Library, or recorded on COPAC, let alone a complete run.

Socialism in Song. An Appreciation of William Morris's "Chants for Socialists. Together with an Introductory Essay on Poetry and Politics.

Author: 
J. Bruce Glasier [John Bruce Glasier (1859-1920)] [William Morris; The National Labour Press]
Publication details: 
Manchester: The National Labour Press, Ltd. [1919.]
£85.00

12mo: xiv + 32 pp. In original grey printed wraps. Internally sound and tight on aged paper. Wraps worn and grubby, with slight staining to spine. Eight copies on COPAC, but only three at deposit libraries (Oxford, NLS and the BL).

Seven Sonnets and A Psalm of Montreal.

Author: 
Samuel Butler [R. A. Streatfeild, ed.]
Publication details: 
Cambridge: Printed for Private Circulation. 1904.
£95.00

12mo, 15 pp. In original green printed wraps. Disbound. Vertical fold. On aged paper with fading to wraps and slight damage to spine from disbinding. As Streatfeild explains in his two-page introductory 'Note', five of the seven poems appear here for the first time. Uncommon. COPAC lists copies at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and the British Library.

"The true hero" and other poems.

Author: 
R. Eurog Jones [THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC]
Publication details: 
Without date [circa 1918?] or place ['Western Mail, Ltd., Cardiff.']
£175.00

64 pages, 16mo. In original printed wraps. In poor condition. Ownership inscription at head of front wrap. The two binding staples rusted, and the wraps in particular grubby, torn and worn. Photograph of 'Private JENKIN THOMAS' in what appears to be World War I uniform on front wrap. Illustration of the 'SINKING OF THE "TITANIC." ' on page 9; photograph of 'WILLIAM HERBERT HARRIS, A.L.C.M.' on page 47.

Two copies of the typescript of a humorous poem titled 'Lines Written in Contemplation of the King's Bodyguard for Scotland 1937.'

Author: 
T. B. S.' [T. B. Simpson; Thomas Blantyre Simpson (1892-1954), author and Sheriff of Perth and Angus] [The King's Bodyguard for Scotland]
Publication details: 
1937. [One copy headed in manuscript: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.']
£75.00

Each of the two typescripts is on one side of a piece of A4 paper. One is signed in type at end 'T. B.S.' and the other (which appears to be mimeographed) carries what is presumably Simpson's signature at head in the manuscript note: 'From T. B. SIMPSON | 11/6/49.' Text of each clear and complete, on creased and aged paper. Apart from the typed signature to the one copy, and the fact that one copy has square brackets and the other curved, the two texts are identical.

To Mr. Law. ['One of thirty copies reprinted from the original edition in the Library of Worcester College, Oxford.']

Author: 
Allan Ramsay. [Worcester College, Oxford; Oxford University Press; John Law; South Sea Bubble]
Publication details: 
[1924.] [With facsimile of title of the original anonymous Edinburgh edition of 1720.]
£125.00

Folio pamphlet: 8 pp. In brown wraps with 'TO MR. LAW. BY ALLAN RAMSAY.' on the front wrap and the publication details on its reverse. On aged and lightly-creased paper, in worn, creased wraps. Nicely printed, with the long s, at the University Press. Originally published anonymously in 1720. Facsimile of title ('EDINBURGH: Printed for the AUTHOR at the Mercury, opposite to Niddrey's-Wynd, MDCCXX.'). A scarce (unattributed) Oxford University Press item: of the thirty copies COPAC lists four: at the British Library, Oxford, Cambridge and the National Library of Scotland.

The Last of the Gaels. Translations from the Gaelic of the bard Ghosolon.

Author: 
Lauchlan Macquarie Stewart
Publication details: 
London, WC1: Erskine Macdonald, Ltd., Malory House, Featherstone Buildings, 1921.
£150.00

Original brown wraps, mainly unopened, 52pp., 8vo, wraps frayed and sunned, mark on front cover obscuring two letters, foxing at beginning and end, contents mainly in good condition. Scarce: COPAC lists three copies (NLS, Bodleian, BL).

The Lintie o' Moray, being a Collection of Poems, chiefly composed for and sung at the Anniversary of the Edinburgh Morayshire Society. From 1829 to 1841.

Author: 
[George Cumming, ed.; William Hay] [Edinburgh Morayshire Society]
Publication details: 
Forres: Printed at the Gazette Office. 1851.
£180.00

8vo: iv + 82 pp. Erratum slip. In original embossed green cloth, gilt. Rebacked and with new endpapers. Tight copy on aged paper with minor wear to extremities. Inscribed on flyleaf 'To Mrs Wane with The Editor's best regards. April 1858.' Minor manuscript changes (by editor?) to p.2 ('our little volume shall' altered to 'our "Little Warbler" shall'). Anonymously edited, with seven-page 'Preface and Dedication' dated 'London, 1850', by George Cumming. The majority of the songs are by 'W. H.' (i.e. William Hay).

Autograph Letter Signed ('G. F. Hamilton') to 'My dear Harmsworth' (Viscount Northcliffe?). With a copy of his booklet translation: 'In St. Patrick's Praise: The Hymn of St. Secundinus (Sechnall)'.

Author: 
[G. F. Hamilton, Rector of Moylough, Co. Galway] [Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe]
Publication details: 
Letter dated 13 March 1919; on letterhead of the Rectory, Moylough, Co. Galway. Booklet: Dublin: The Church of Ireland Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd., 61 Middle Abbey Street.
£125.00

Letter: 12mo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Begins 'Your hands must be full just now, judging from the Daily Papers.' He presents the 'booklet' as 'a small memento of friendship for you', and describes as 'just published by me on a hymn considered (by Bernard, Bury etc.) to be a contemporary of St. Patrick. An 11th. cent MS. containing it is in T. C. D. Library. And it is also given in a 7th. cent. MS. at Milan.' Postscript referring to an article he has sent Harmsworth, 'for which I received thanks (quite unsolicited) of the Prof. of English Literature, T.C.D.!

Autograph Card Signed to unnamed male correspondent [the headmaster of Harrow School?].

Author: 
Anna Swanwick (1813-1899), English author, translator and social reformer [Reginald Bosworth Smith (1839-1908), Housemaster of Harrow School]
Publication details: 
20 March [no year, but after 1892]; on letterhead of 23 Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park, N.W.
£75.00

On both sides of the gilt-edged card, which is roughly 9 x 11.5 cm. Aged, but in fair condition. 'Mr Bosworth Smith' has informed her that her book 'Poets the Interpreters of Their Age' (1892) 'will be acceptable to the pupils of Harrow School', and she has 'great pleasure in presenting a copy to your library, & hoping that a kind welcome will be accorded to my little offering'. A postscript explains that the volume 'will be forwarded by an early post'.

First printing of his essay '[Ur-Gerausch]' ['Primal Noise'].

Author: 
Rainer Maria Rilke
Publication details: 
In 'Das Inselschiff' (Leipzig: Im Insel-Verlag, October 1919).
£35.00

The magazine consists of 48 pages, octavo, in original yellow printed wraps. Dogeared, and on aged paper, and with the grubby wraps quite heavily worn. 12mo publicity handbill loosely inserted. Rilke's contribution, dated 'Soglio, am Tage Mariae Himmelfahrt 1919', is on pp 14-20.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Beattie') to R. Hepburn.

Author: 
William Beattie (1793-1875), M.D., poet and biographer
Publication details: 
Friday mg.' [date not stated]; Upper Berkeley Street.
£35.00

One page, 12mo. Black bordered. Very good and with the verso of the blank second leaf of the bifolium laid down on a leaf detached from an autograph album. Nine lines. He thanks him for 'a brace of splendid grouse - which are now so rare as not to be had for money. It was therefore doubly generous [...] Endulging [sic] the pleasing hope of "Revenge" - & with kind regards to your House circle'.

Number Four in the series of Christmas cards printed by the Favil Press for the Poetry bookshop, containing the poem 'The Curate's Christmas Eve' by Monro, and two coloured engravings by Stewart, one entitled 'Decorations'.

Author: 
Harold Monro (1879-1932); Alistair Stewart; The Favil Press; The Poetry Bookshop
Publication details: 
No date [circa 1928]. Printed 'by The Favil Press, 152 Church Street, Kensington, W.8 and published, in collaboration with the printers, by The Poetry Bookshop, 38 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.1.'
£45.00

Printed on one side of a piece of paper roughly 46 x 32 cm, folded twice to make a 23 x 16 cm card. Good, on lightly aged and spotted paper. On the front is a small illustration in green and black, roughly 7.5 x 6 cm, showing a picture of a domestic Christmas interior in an ivy-topped frame. Inside the card, on the left-hand page, is Monro's poem, of 18 lines arranged in three stanzas, beginning, 'The Curate and the Spinster sit.

The first four numbers of 'The New Athenian Broadsheet'. No.1, 'Festival Issue - Scottish Poems of Place'. No.3: 'Spring and Summer Poems'. No.4: 'Scottish Lore and Legend'.

Author: 
The New Athenian Broadsheet [The Favil Press; Lewis Spence; William Soutar; Sydney Goodsir Smith; George Campbell Hay; Edwin Muir; Naomi Mitchison; Maurice Lindsay; Scotland; Scottish poetry]
Publication details: 
No.1: August 1947; No.2: Christmas 1947; No.3: April 1948; No.4: July, 1948'. All printed for 'The Editor, The New Athenian Broadsheets, 45 Plewlands Gardens, Edinburgh, 10' by The Favil Press Ltd., 152 Kensington Church Street, London.
£165.00

All four items printed on both sides of a piece of paper roughly 57 x 25 cm, folded twice to make 6 pp, each 19 x 25 cm. Aged and a little grubby and creased. The second number with title printed in red, the third with title in green, and fourth with title in blue. Each with engraving of park with neo-classical buildings by William McLaren. No.1: poems by Lewis Spence, R. L. Cook, Joe Corrie, W. H. Hamilton, Alexander Buist, A. V. Stuart, Hugh N. Maclachlan, A. A. C. Blackie, Dorothy Margaret Paulin and Helen B. Cruikshank. No.2: poems by William Soutar, Alexander Buist, A. V.

Poems of Rural Life in Common English.

Author: 
William Barnes [Dorset dialect poetry]
Publication details: 
London: Macmillan and Co. 1868. [London: Printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street.]
£65.00

First edition. 8vo: xii + 200 + [iv] pp. (the last four pages an unpaginated publisher's catalogue). In original blue cloth, gilt. Fair, tight copy, on lightly-aged paper, with some spotting to endpapers. Binding with dulled spine and minor spotting. Bookplate of the Rev. English Crooks. Binders ticket ('BOUND BY BURN & CO.') to rear pastedown. Half-title reads 'RURAL POEMS'. The 'translation' of the three collections beginning with 'Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect' (1844).

The Art of Poetry, Written in French by The Sieur de Boileau. In Four Canto's. Made English By Sir William Soames, Since Revis'd by John Dryden, Esq;

Author: 
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux; Sir William Soames; John Dryden; Henry Hills junior, London printer
Publication details: 
London: Printed and Sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars near the Water-side. 1710.
£400.00

12mo: 40 pp. Disbound. Good, on lightly aged paper. Contemporary ownership inscription of 'William Francklyn" on title-page. This edition is scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at Liverpool.

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