The Knapsack. A Pocket-Book of Prose and Verse

Read, Herbert, editor

Edité par George Routledge, London, 1939

First edition, variant binding. x, 622 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Pocket anthology of literature intended to form part of a soldier's kit. In his preface, dated October 1939, author and critic Herbert Read recalls his own military service in the first war and his wish for a handy volume "to suit the various moods and circumstances of my unsettled existence". A nice copy of this early British analogue of the American Armed Services Editions series of paperbacks. Americana dealer William Reese had an outstanding collection of material relating to Siegfried Sassoon and other writers of the first world war. This copy with ownership signature, "David Jones December 1939". Painter and poet David Jones (1895-1974) worked for a decade on In Parenthesis (1937), which culminates at Mametz in the first world war. It was awarded the 1938 Hawthornden prize. "[T]he strength and grace of his engraving work and his occasional wooden sculpture, would be enough to win him a high place among the artists of his generation and in a tradition that goes back to William Blake, whose nature and genius with many differences David Jones recalls. His work as a poet, in In Parenthesis, The Anathemata (1952), and The Sleeping Lord (1974), was almost more impressive, and in the lettering and the texts of his 'inscriptions', words painted on paper, he devised a new and moving art" (ODNB). The Knapsack went into several editions and is usually seen in a standard cloth binding. Provenance: David Jones; William S. Reese (gift of Terry Halladay) Original brown cloth wallet binding upper cover printed in yellow, fore edge guard with snap closure. Minor rubbing, fine. N° de réf. du vendeur 370059

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : The Knapsack. A Pocket-Book of Prose and ...
Éditeur : George Routledge, London
Date d'édition : 1939
Reliure : x, 622 pp. 1 vols. 8vo
Edition : First edition, variant binding.