August 2020 Catalogue

A u g u s t 2 0 2 0 49 Wilfred Owen’s Poems , Presentation/Association Copy Inscribed By Siegfried Sassoon To Novelist Edith Olivier 47. (SASSOON, Siegfried) OWEN, Wilfred. The Poems of Wilfred Owen. A New Edition Including Many Pieces Now First Published, and Notices of His Life and Work by Edmund Blunden. London, 1931. Octavo, original purple cloth, dust jacket. $7200. Click for more info First Blunden edition of Wilfred Owen’s first book of war poems, expanded by fellow war-poet Edmund Blunden from the 1920 first edition which had been edited by Siegfried Sassoon, presentation/association copy inscribed by Sassoon to novelist and friend Edith Olivier: “Edith Olivier, from S.S. 21.3.31.” Though only four poems were published in his lifetime, Wilfred Owen is “recognized as the greatest poet of the Great War.” During his recovery from shellshock in Craiglockhart Hospital, “Owen befriended a fellow patient, the poet Siegfried Sassoon,” subsequently returning to France where he “was killed in action at the age of 25” ( New York Times ). First published posthumously in 1920 in an edition edited by Sassoon, this second edition was greatly expanded by fellow war-poet Edmund Blunden. This excellent association copy was presented by Sassoon to novelist Edith Olivier. Olivier was a hostess at her home in Wiltshire to many upper-class aesthetes, including Sassoon, Osbert Sitwell, Cecil Beaton, and Stephen Tennant. In 1933, Olivier introduced Sassoon to Hester Gatty, who later became his wife. Bookplate of Anthony Hobson, the famed head of Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby’s. Interior fine, toning to cloth; plain dust jacket with darkened spine, otherwise in exceptional condition. A wonderful association copy.