First edition. Publisher's original stitched paper wrappers, printed in black to upper cover. An exceptional association copy, inscribed by Robert Graves for Siegfried Sassoon, "Siegfried Sassoon affectionately from Robert Graves, 1927". With Sassoon's posthumous library label to the verso of the half-title. Housed in a bespoke cloth chemise and quarter leather slipcase. A near fine copy.

An exceptional association copy, bringing together Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, two of the greatest writers of the First World War.
Graves and Sassoon met in France in November 1915, when Graves saw the first good book he had encountered since being in France; a volume of essays by Lionel Johnson, which was inscribed with the name "Siegfried Sassoon". They bonded over literature, and their fledgling poetic careers, and became significant influences on each other's work, with Sassoon writing of this period "the main thing here is the influence of Robert Graves... he taught me to be natural and idiomatic."
Spending time together writing poetry while on leave, they forged a plan to become the war's Wordsworth and Coleridge by publishing a collaborative volume of their poems. Though this work never came to fruition, their wartime friendship and closeness was memorialised in Graves's poem 'Two Fusiliers':
"Show me the two so closely bound
As we, by the red bond of blood,
By friendship, blossoming from mud,
By Death: we faced him, and we found
Beauty in Death,
In dead men, breath."
This book was inscribed in 1927, two years before the publication of Graves's 'Goodbye To All That', a book which would rupture their friendship irreparably. In June 1927 Graves visited Sassoon at Campden Hill Square, where he was shown a copy of The Heart's Journey and possibly gave Sassoon the present volume. As Graves was leaving, "Sassoon felt a sudden immense compassion and kissed his astonished old friend on the 'knobbly' forehead, exclaiming, 'dear Robert!'" (Egremont).
The Mother is Edith Sitwell's first published book, published in 1915. She did not meet Sassoon until 1918, but they became close friends in the 1920s, with Edmund Gosse suggesting they marry. The book is dedicated to "H.E.R., F.O.S.S. and S.S."; the final dedicatee is not Sassoon, but Sitwell's brother Sacheverell.

PROVENANCE: From the library of Siegfried Sassoon (sold at his posthumous Sothebys sale, 18th July 1991, lot 127).

Fifoot EA1.

Stock ID: 44443