“LIKE PHANTOMS THROUGH MEMORY”

DE LA MARE, Walter. Alone. (London: Curwen / Faber & Gwyer), [1927]. 12mo, original red wrappers, stitched as issued; pp.4. $150.

First trade edition, Number Four in the special Curwen Press Ariel Series featuring poets such as T.S. Eliot and Thomas Hardy, de la Mare’s evocative poem Alone with two woodcut engravings (one in color) by Blair Hughes-Stanton.

This elegant printing of Walter de la Mare's poem Alone, illustrated with woodcut engravings (one full color) by Blair Hughes-Stanton, is Number Four in the special Ariel Series issued by Britain's Curwen Press, renowned for its emphasis of "fine design and illustration" (Porter, Miller's Collecting Modern Books, 127). The choice of de la Mare's Alone signals the influence of this writer whose "poetry was prized and praised by Thomas Hardy, T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden" (Harmon, Classic Hundred Poems, 223). Here, as in all of de la Mare's finest poems, "there is a disturbing sense of mystery and unease in which the dream can shift into nightmare" (Hamilton, 123). Finely printed on handmade paper. Issued the same year as a signed limited edition of 350 copies, no priority established.

A fine copy.