The Left Heresy in Literature and Life

London: Methuen Publishers , 1939. Good. FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR?* Crown 8vo, pp. viii, 270, [2]. Tan cloth, spine lettered in red. Grubby, soiled, bruised and worn, especially at spine ends. Edges toned and foxed, and into prelims. Kemp's rather terse inscription in sepia pen to ffep: "To Alix/ from/ Harry". Four page folded leaflet, 'Methuen Books/ Spring, 1939,' laid in (creased and darkened at top edges). A well-used copy. Good-only A close friend of Laura Riding and Robert Graves, Harry Kemp (1911-1994) was a poet and mathematics teacher: "A lively raconteur with a roving and satirical eye, he was a small, ruddy-faced man, old-fashioned in his dress, credulous in his judgements. Always short of funds, he nevertheless remained hospitable and spent what he could save on publishing more than 10 books of his cool, well-shaped poems." (Seymour, 1994). Their introduction came when James Reeves sent a sheaf of Kemp's poems to Riding, who published them in the Spring 1937 issue of her little magazine Epilogue III and, soon after, sought Kemp's input for The World and Ourselves (1938): "a book which aimed to prevent war by the collaborative mental endeavours of ''inside'' people, Kemp was one of her prize contributors." (ibid). Kemp had flirted briefly with Communism while at Cambridge, but roundly renounced it in his collaboration with Riding, as the title suggests. The 'And others' of the subtitle are Robert Graves and Alan Hodge, with these later sections reprinted in revised form from Epilogue III. The Alix of the inscription is likely Kemp's first wife, Alix (n�e Eierman), "the refugee daughter of a German-Jewish industrialist" whose more practical energies were focused, in the late 1930s, on starting a cheese-importing business. Perhaps the cool tone of the inscription reflects a certain ambivalence on his wife's behalf at the poets' political project, given that "Riding, according to Kemp, did her best to dissuade Kemp from sleeping with his wife, believing that sex should only be undertaken for reproductive purposes; her advice was not followed." (Seymour). When Graves and Riding returned to England in 1936, Kemp found them a car and house, with the two couples renting Highcroft house in Ewhurst, Surrey together for a couple of months in 1937 and they subsequently bought homes close to each other in London. In older age, Kemp and Riding's relationship soured, with her accusing him of being bitten by "the animus of poet-egotism". (ibid.). * The University of Exeter, which holds a small Kemp collection, was unable to confirm that this signature is Kemp's, as it only holds one example. The distinctive 'H' � which is shared by both this and Exeter's signature, plus a third example � in combination with the inscription featuring the unusual spelling of 'Alix' inclines us to think this is Kemp. Diary of Robert Graves, 1935-9 (online resource); Miranda Seymour (1994) 'Obituary: Harry Kemp,' in The Independent, 28 October, p.16