Marrin's Bookshop

Item Description

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 7.5 x 5.25 inches. 56 pp. In patterned stiff card wrapper with printed paper title label. Rough cut fore edge. A little wear to extremities, including corners and head and tail of spine, which is sunned. Flyleaves browned, but otherwise a very good copy. Decorated by title page vignette. The first published book of verse by war poet, Edgell Rickword (1898-1982). He joined the Artist Rifles in 1916, was commissioned to the Royal Berkshire Regiment and served on the Western Front where he was twice wounded and was awarded the MC. In 1919 he lost one eye, but had a long career as a critic and as an influential literary magazine editor, joining the CPGB in 1934. This collection contains five of his best war poems including the very powerful Trench Poets, as well as the more strangely entitled Regret for the Depopulation of Rural Districts and Complaint of a Tadpole confined in a Jam-jar.