VERSE

[ Frank Eyton, lyricist. ] Autograph Note Signed ('Frank Eyton') accompanying his typed original humorous poem about road works 'A Finchley Road Cameo'; together with a Typed Letter Signed ('Frank') of reminiscences and family news.

Author: 
Frank Eyton (1894-1962), English popular music lyricist [ Herman Finck [ Hermann Van Der Vinck ] (1872-1939), Anglo-Dutch composer ]
Publication details: 
Typed Letter Signed on letterhead of The Montecito, Hollywood, California, 20 September 1937. Autograph Note with Typed Poem on his letterhead, 12 Lowther Mansions, Barnes, S.W.13 [ London ]. 24 December 1937.
£120.00

Both items in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: Typed Poem followed by Autograph Note Signed. 24 December 1937. 2pp., 8vo. The poem consists of eleven four-line stanzas, with the title typed in red. An apparently unpublished humorous poem, quite charming and well worthy of publication. Begins: 'For months we've had electric road-drills | Right outside our door, | And two gentlemen who play them | Called in yesterday at four.

[ Isle of Man; Verse ] Mona's Isle , and Other Poems

Author: 
William Kennish, R.N.
Publication details: 
London; J. Bradley [...] Simpkin, Marshall, 1844
£500.00

[xxii].166pp., 8vo, original green front board with gilt decorated title, bumped but good condition, rebacked with new brighter green back board, contents sl. foxed and stained, mainly good, advertisement page for another book by Kennish (naval) and the poems of Harriet Jones. Eight page liist of Subscibers, inclkuding many inhabitants of the Isle of Man. Note: Re Preface, an "unlettered Poet", former ploughboy, trouble learning English when joining the Navy, etc. Scarce: copies on COPAC/WorldCat only copyright libraries.

[Annotated typescript; play] "Charlotte Corday" A Tragedy in One Act ("C'est le crime qui fait la honte, et non pas l'echafaud", titlepage motto)

Author: 
Harry Graham [Jocelyn Henry Clive 'Harry' Graham (1874–1936)], writer, poet, humourist, journalist, soldier, traveller, " inventor of ruthless rhymes".
Publication details: 
Unpublished and Unrecorded, [c.1908?]
£400.00

[50] leaves (rectos numbered only), 4to, stiff boards, good condition, typescript, annotated by the author, additions, corrections, excisions, who has inscribed the recto of the free endpaper "Harry Graham. || Royal Court. | Palace of Westminster. | London, S.W. | England". The scene is set in Charlotte Corday's prison cell, and the dramatis personae listed are Charlotte herself; Francois Chabot (Deputy for the Departement of Loir-et-Cher; Jean-Jacques Hauer, A Young Artist; Richard, Warder at the Conciergerie Prison; Charles-Henry Sanson, Public Executioner.

[ Edward Lear, artist and writer of nonsense verse. ] Autograph Signature ('Edwd Lear.').

Author: 
Edward Lear (1812-1888), artist and author, famed for his nonsense verse
Lear
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£80.00
Lear

On 2 x 6cm strip of paper, cut from a letter. In good condition, lightly aged. A good firm signature, underlined, with the tiniest part of the head of the loop of the iniitial 'E' of 'Edwd' has been shaved off.

[Pamphlet; Queen Victoria] The Best and Greatest Quenn. [...] A Trilogy.

Author: 
H.H.
Publication details: 
Atkinson & Sons, printers, Pontefract, 1901
£80.00

Pamphlet, [22]pp., inc. printed wraps, closed tear, back wrap, otherwise good condition. Verse celebrating the Life and Death of Queen Victoria. No copy found on COPAC or WoerldCat.

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[First World War poetry pamphlet in French.] 1914 1918 Nos Angoisses par J. Droit.

Author: 
J. Droit, Belgian poet of the First World War [poetry of the Great War in French]
Publication details: 
[S. LEDOUX, Imprimeur-Editeur, Avenue des Viaducs, 39. CHARLEROI'.
£400.00

24pp., 12mo. Stapled. Lacking title-leaf (publication details quoted from another copy) and with damage to last leaf, on aged and lightly-creased cheap paper stock. Ten poems, five of them dated: 'Aux Affamés' (8 January 1917), 'Le Bon Fermier' (15 January 1917), 'Le Crime', La Grève Judiciaire' (September 1918), 'Le Retour du Soldat' (10 October 1918), 'Les Pauvres Gens sont comme les Pavés', 'Assez!', 'L'Abdication' (15 October 1918, regarding the Kaiser's abdication), 'Ce que demande le Peuple!', 'La Plainte du Soldat'. The item featured in the 1919 'Belgische Bibliografie'.

[Alfred Noyes, English poet.] Autograph Card Signed to 'Miss Meugens', granting permission to make a version for the blind of his 'Torch-Bearers'.

Author: 
Alfred Noyes (1880-1958), English poet
Publication details: 
85 Cadogan Gardens, S.W. [London postmark, 8 June 1925.]
£35.00

In good condition, lightly-aged, with thin strip from stub to one edge of address side of card. Message reads: 'It will give me great pleasure for you to copy the 2nd. volume of the Torch-Bearers, as you suggest, for the Blind. | With my best wishes, | Alfred Noyes.'

[Eighteenth-century ballad.] Manuscript of untitled poem beginning 'Ere ye. read ys. ye. may suppose. | That some new listed Lover. | By means of Poetry has chose. | His Passion to discover.'

Author: 
[Eighteenth-century English manuscript ballad; Georgian popular poetry]
Publication details: 
Early eightheenth century. [Another (later?) version published in the Gentleman's Magazine, London, May 1744.]
£180.00

2pp., on both sides of a strip of 35.5 x 11.5 cm laid paper with fleur-de-lys watermark. In a secretary hand employing the thorn and long s. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. An untitled forty-line poem, divided into five numbered eight-line stanzas. The narrator is an older married woman, advising a younger woman not to marry, with observations on the frailties of the male sex. The first stanza reads: 'Ere ye. read ys. ye. may suppose. | That some new listed Lover. | By means of Poetry has chose. | His Passion to discover.

[Book] A Boy of Clare

Author: 
E.H.W. Meyerstein
Publication details: 
OUP. 1937.
£45.00

Bound in off-white paper over boards; white cloth shelfback, 98pp., sm.8vo, good condition. Printed title stuck on front cover, 4 x 1cm, inscribed "Roderick from Pat || 15th March 1938." Scarce.

Holograph Poem by the Congregational minister Richard Winter Hamilton, beginning 'Dear Sister, Christian Heroine!'

Author: 
Richard Winter Hamilton (1794-1848), Congregational minister of Albion and Belgrave Chapels, Leeds
Publication details: 
Leeds. 20 November 1827.
£120.00

1p., 4to. In good condition, on a lightly aged and worn leaf removed from an album. The poem is twenty lines long, arranged in five four-line stanzas. The first stanza reads 'Dear Sister, Christian Heroine! | Stranger to me thy form & voice - | I venerate that zeal of thine, | And while I blush, for thee rejoice'. The second stanza is somewhat heretical: 'Nor Male nor Female is in Him | Who Born of Woman, both hath sav'd: | She conquers every terror grim, - | She thousand deaths for Him has brav'd!' The third stanza begins: '"A woman slew him:" Gideon'ss son'.

Album of poems by Captain William Gamul Edwards of The Cedars, Bromley Common, Kent, both original compositions in his autograph and cuttings of poems published by him, mainly under the pseudonyms 'W. G. E.' and 'Gamul'.

Author: 
Captain William Gamul Edwards (1808-1884) of HM 38th Regiment of Foot and The Cedars, Bromley Common, Kent, Director of the Mid-Kent Railway, son of Rev. Thomas Edwards, Rector of Alford, Cheshire
Publication details: 
[The Cedars, Bromley Common, Kent.] Dated from between September 1835 and February 1880.
£320.00

146pp., 12mo, in autograph, almost entirely consisting of poetic compositions, with numerous emendations; with a further 35 cuttings of poems laid down (33 of them by Edwards) and another two cuttings of another two poems loosely inserted. Also loosely inserted are two poems (totalling 7pp., 4to): 'To Ill Health', dated September 1835; and 'The last hope', 28 December 1869. In contemporary dark-green crushed morocco binding, gilt, recently rebacked by Ipsley Bindery with new enpapers. All edges gilt.

[Printed pamphlet.] Poems from the Diary of a V. A. D. By Carrie Portelly.

Author: 
Carrie Portelly (1893-1966), V.A.D., of Buckfast, Devon [Voluntary Aid Detachment; field nurse; nursing]
Publication details: 
Printed by Edwin Trim & Co. Ltd. Wimbledon S.W.19. Undated, but individual poems dated between September 1938 and October 1942.
£250.00

[1] + 38pp., 12mo. Stapled into brown printed wraps, with the title and printer's slug on the cover, which also carries the price of two shillings and sixpence. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Introductory note reads: 'These few pages refer to war-time troubles at home and in hospital, and other people's love laments. C.P.' Unpretentious poetry, giving an insight into the work of a V.A.D.

[Presentation copy of a printed pamphlet containing a poem on the death of his young daughter.] Pattie's Christmas Tree. By J. A. Langford, LL.D.

Author: 
J. A. Langford, LL.D. [John Alfred Langford (1823-1903); the Herald Press, Birmingham]
Publication details: 
Printed for private circulation. 1892. [Printed by Wright, Dain, Peyton & Co., at the Herald Press, Birmingham]
£80.00

[2] + 8 + [1] pp., small (18 x 14 cm.) 4to. Sewn with green ribbon into white wraps, with 'Pattie's Christmas Tree' in gilt on front. In good condition, with the wraps slightly sunned in panels. Inscribed at head of title-page 'With kind regards'. The pamphlet contains a single poem titled 'Pattie's Christmas Tree', printed on eight pages each with decorative border in gilt. Printer's slug on revers of title, and colophon on last page. The beginning and end of the poem indicate the theme.

Holograph poem by John S. Broad of Newcastle-under-Lyme, titled 'Forbearing Love' ('Heap coals of fire upon the guilty head'), with covering Autograph Letter Signed ('John S Broad'), expressing the hope that the poem will 'answer your purpose'.

Author: 
John S. Broad [John Samuel Broad (b.1809)], Vicar of St Georges, Newcastle-under-Lyme [Victorian provincial poetry]
Publication details: 
Poem from Newcastle-under-Lyme, undated. Letter from Newcastle, 26 December 1843.
£95.00

Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Poem: 1p., 4to. Titled at head: 'Forbearing Love | Romans XII 19-21.' Signed at foot: 'John S. Broad | Newcastle under Lyme'. The poem consists of 24 lines in six four-line stanzas. The first stanza reads: 'Heap coals of fire upon the guilty head, | And melt its malice down; | Let flames of love around it be outspread | And charm away its frown.' The last stanza: 'Thus shall it win its conquering way in peace, | Raise trophies free from blood; | Thus make the storms of sinful passion cease | And bow the heart to God!' Letter: 1p., 12mo.

Nine Autograph Letters Signed from the poet Herbert Palmer to Rev. Harry Escott of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, editing a book of Escott's poetry, discussing Christian verse, and attacking T. S. Eliot, the Faber poets and modernism.

Author: 
Herbert Palmer [Herbert Edward Palmer] (1880-1961), English poet and critic [Rev. Harry Escott (1905-1987), MA, Congregational Minister at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire]
Publication details: 
All from 22 Batchwood View, St Albans, Hertfordshire. One from 1938, two from 1942, one from 1943, and the rest undated.
£280.00

Totalling 36pp., 4to. In fair condition, bound by Escott with brown paper into paper wraps, with the front wrap signed by Escott and bearing the typed label 'LETTERS from HERBERT PALMER on "Minstrels of Christ" and my second book of verse "Soar for Victory", amended in February 1948 to "Back to the Fountain."' An interesting correspondence, casting light on the workings of the mid-twentieth century publishing industry, from the point of view of a successful traditional poet strongly opposed to modernism.

[Handbill] Untitled Verse about a meeting of Welshmen in London c.1879.

Author: 
[Welsh interest] J.G. [J. Gravell]
Publication details: 
No place of publication given, or date [pencilled 1879]
£150.00

One page, 8vo, total 40 lines, heavily stained (from being laid down in album, text clear and complete). A weaving together of Welsh names and place names (in bold) in simple verse, commencing, My song is of a meeting which took place with friendly greeting | In an ancient hall in London not many weeks ago, | When from the principality of Wales, all in equality, | Assembled jovial Welshmen a score and half or so. | There was William Jones from Bala, John Price from Cwrt yr Ala, | John Thomas from the Ogmore, and James from Llanuwchllyn ...

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Long manuscript of an early Victorian poem entitled 'The last of the Hohen Stauffens', divided into three sections: 'Italy', 'The Morning of the Execution' and 'The Execution'. With a number of emendations and deletions.

Author: 
[Anonymous Victorian poem ('Written for Dublin about 1843') titled 'The Last of the Hohen Stauffens', on the execution of Conradine, 1268.]
 Victorian poem entitled 'The last of the Hohen Stauffens'
Publication details: 
Undated, but on paper watermarked 1841, and docketed 'Written for Dublin about 1843'.
£125.00
 Victorian poem entitled 'The last of the Hohen Stauffens'

Folio, 11 pp. On the rectos of eleven leaves of Britannia paper watermarked 'W H FELLOWS | 1841'. Held together with string. Text clear and complete. In ink, with deletions and emendations in pencil. Good, on aged paper. Docketed on reverse of last leaf. The subject of the poem is the execution of Conradine in the market square in Naples, 29 October 1268. The first section (3 pp) begins 'Italia fair Italia unto thee, | Was beauty given twice with misery, | At once the loveliest and the loveliest clime, | Thou wert the seat of Empire, and of crime; [...]'.

"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.

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).

Everything New? Or Nothing New? A Satirical Comicality, Relating to Men, Manners, Incidents, and Novelties of the Day. [...] To which is added, The Shakespeare Tercentenary Prologue, As Spoken by the author, April 23, 1864.

Author: 
William Scribble, Esq.' (pseudonym of William Smyth (1813-1878), Irish portrait painter, satirist and friend of William Makepeace Thackeray)
Publication details: 
Dublin: William Robertson, 35, Lower Sackville-street, And may be had of Wiseheart, and all Booksellers. 1864. [Goodwin, Son, and Nethercott, Printers, 79, Marlborough-street, Dublin.]
£225.00

12mo: 24 pp. In original pink printed wraps: the front wrap bearing the title; the recto and verso of the rear carrying newspaper reviews of works by 'Scribble'. Stitched. On aged and spotted paper. Wraps heavily worn. A worn presentation inscription can be made out at the head of the title: 'Dr <?> With the Authors Best regards'. Pp.1-2: Introduction and Author's Preface (the latter dated 'Dublin, May, 1864.').

Autograph Note Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Jonathan Mawson Denwood (born c.1853?; died c.1931?), English writer in the dialect of his native Cumbria
Publication details: 
72 Kirkgate, Cockermouth; 8 August 1931.
£30.00

One page, quarto. Good, on lightly aged paper. Some offsetting and smudging from Denwood's folding of letter. Reads '72 Kirkgate | Cockermouth | Aug 8 - 1931 | Jonathan. Mawson. Denwood | Dear Sir, | I send you autograph. I cannot write further At the moment I can scarcely hold a pen.'

Libellus lapidum.

Author: 
Hilary Pepler and David Jones [S. Dominic's Press]
Publication details: 
Printed & published by the Author at | Ditchling Sussex | & at 350, Oxford Street. London, W. I. | A. MCMXXIV. D.' [1924]
£150.00

Small 8vo. Pages: viii + 24 + [4 blanks]. Original cream paper wraps: title and price in red and engraving in green on front. Wraps discoloured, rubbed and stained, with covers loosening and loss at foot of spine. Internally sound and tight, but quite heavily foxed. Dated ownership inscription on flyleaf. Titlepage vignette and 15 engravings. Collection of whimsical poems about places like Hampstead Garden Suburb and people like G. K. Chesterton and Bernard Shaw. Taylor & Sewell A125b.

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