And Seven More Years
The Old Century And Seven More Years
Faber and Faber, 1938.
First edition. Publisher's black cloth, lettered gilt, in the original dustwrapper. Inscribed by Sassoon for Walter De La Mare, with a reference to the latter's poem 'Old Ben', "Dear Old Ben from his old friend S.S. Heytesbury. Sept. 25, 1938" A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper, light toning to spine.
An exceptional presentation copy from Sassoon to his close collaborator and fellow Georgian poet Walter De La Mare.
De La Mare was an important early influence on Sassoon's poetry, and Sassoon found his work a great comfort during the war. Indeed, on June 3rd 1918, after reading some of De La Mare's poems while sitting by some French graves, he wrote in his notebook the short poem "On reading De La Mare's poems after the day's work" which opened:
"When the hard day is done, I read your book,
Deep in the haunted forest, where the brook
Sings, betwixt day's last dream and dawn's first spear
You hushed me with your dreams and peace draws near."
Their work appeared alongside each other's in the 1916-17 and 1918-19 volumes of Eddie Marsh's Georgian Poetry, and Sassoon's first visit to De La Mare in Hertfordshire shortly followed the publication of the 1919 volume. Their friendship grew in the post-war years, and in his 1924 poem 'Cary Castle', inspired by a visit with De La Mare, he imagined them as "two poets at the edge of time".
PROVENANCE: Walter De La Mare (1873-1956).
Stock ID: 41574
£2,250.00
