Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

A little book of bourgeois verse.

Item Description

FIRST EDITION. 8vo. 8.5 x 6 [x] + 45 pp. Three poems on thin paper with pictorial borders, printed in red and black, [8] pp., inserted between p. 18-19. Bound in original black cloth, gilt, with gilt decorative blocks in the form of clasps and ornamental title on front board, all designed by Osbert Lancaster. All edges gilt. Printed on grey paper. Slight wear to extremities and some stains on one of the blank rear flyleaves; otherwise a very good copy. Illustrated by artists named in the preliminaries. Decorated by title page vignette and by initials. First edition of Betjeman's second collection of verse, plentifully illustrated. It reprints fifteen poems from his 1932 collection, Mount Zion, and in book form for the first time, other poems from various periodicals, with two notable titles being The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel and Slough.