105 “A Peak Of English Poetry” 180YEATS, William Butler. The Winding Stair. New York, 1929. Octavo, original gilt-stamped dark blue cloth, custom clamshell box. $4500 Signed limited first edition, one of only 642 copies. The Winding Stair, along with The Tower, contains “the greatest poetry of Yeats in his difficult later manner… a peak in English poetry” (Connolly 56B). “Yeats’ greatest achievement was the development of a symbolic language to express an equilibrium between the conflicting demands on the poet of the outside world and his art… This theme is central to the two volumes which are often thought to be Yeats’ best, The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair (1929)” (Hamilton, 595). Without scarce glassine and slipcase. About-fine. “To Strive, To Seek, To Find, And Not To Yield” 181TENNYSON, Alfred. Poems. London, 1842. Two volumes. 12mo, 20th-century full dark green morocco gilt, custom chemises, slipcases. $3500 First edition, containing some of Tennyson’s best-known works, beautifully bound. Published relatively early in Tennyson’s career, the 1842 Poems was the work that first established him as one of the most important poets of his generation. Of the second volume of the 1842 Poems the poet’s grandson and chief biographer observes, ‘Never before or since has an English poet produced a volume treating so wide a range of subjects with such a high level of accomplishment’” (Hagen, Tennyson & His Publishers, 65-66.). Fine. First Editions Of Thackeray’s Six Christmas Books 182(THACKERAY, William Makepeace) TITMARSH, M.A. The Christmas Books. London, 1847-50; 1855. Six volumes. One volume small quarto, five volumes octavo, early 20th-century full crimson morocco gilt rebacked with spines laid down, custom slipcase. $3500 First editions of Thackeray’s illustrated Christmas books, all but one illustrated by Thackeray himself and all but one with hand-colored plates (the other with uncolored wood-engravings), beautifully bound. While not as well-known today as Dickens’ Christmas books, Thackeray’s Christmas books were equally popular in their day. Thackeray published these humorous pieces under the pseudonym Michael Angelo Titmarsh, which "allowed him to develop a remarkable range of ventriloquist voices” (ODNB). Interiors clean and fine, full morocco-gilt bindings expertly refurbished and quite beautiful.
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