The Old Vicarage, Grantchester

London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1916. First Impression. Original Wrappers. Fine-. First Separate Edition, with double-page woodcut by Noel Brooke, one of 2900 copies issued. Foolscap 8vo (170 x 124mm): 14pp. Stitched in publisher's stiff grey paper wrappers printed in black. Bottom edge of upper wrapper lightly spotted, one corner bumped, but an excellent example, pages and plate virtually pristine. Keynes 29. Composed in May, 1912, at the Cafe des Westens, Berlin, in five lighthearted verse paragraphs of varying lengths and originally published the previous year in 1914 & Other Poems. The title refers to Brooke's occasional residence near Cambridge. "It is very much a poem of 'place': the place where Brooke composed the work, Berlin and the Café des Westens, and the contrast of that German world ("Here am I, sweating, sick, and hot") with his home in England. Yet it is more than just the longing of an exile for his home, nostalgically imagined. The landscape of Cambridgeshire is reproduced in the poem, but Brooke, the academic, populates this English world with allusions and references from history and myth." (wikipedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).