THE SACRED WOOD ESSAYS ON POETRY AND CRITICISM

London: Methuen, [1920].. 12mo. Cloth. Heavily worn and shaken, with surface chips from spine and scattered incompletely erased doodles and drawings in the text. First edition. A very interesting association copy, formerly the property of American novelist Nathanael West. West's ownership inscription appears at the top edge of the front free endsheet: "N. West 1926 Paris." West visited Paris shortly after his hair's- breadth graduation from Brown University and stayed for only a few months (sources vary). While there he pursued the literary life, adopted his name change from Weinstein to West, and began work on what was to eventually appear as THE DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL. Page 61 has some heavy pencil underscores and marginal highlighting, and page 70 has three lines of barely visible, partially erased text in pencil. Most interesting are the many partially erased remnants of drawings and doodles in several blank margins, the rear free endsheet, and the title and half-title, which may just possibly be the work of West. It should be noted that a recurring element in those drawings are what appear to be both unicorn and Trojan-style horses' heads, along with some renderings of the sacred heart symbol. Of course, the Trojan Horse is an integral structural element in THE DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL, and were it not for the unfortunate results of a former handler's slightly ineffective work with an eraser, this could possibly be confirmed as a substantially more informative and attractive association item. GALLUP A5a.