Vigils.

[Bristol: privately printed for Douglas Cleverdon,], 1934. Presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury First edition, number 231 of 272 copies signed and numbered by the author on the limitation page, this a presentation copy, additionally inscribed by Sassoon to Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864-1945), the then-Archbishop of Canterbury, on the first blank, "Cosmo Gordon from S.", signed with the author's monogram. Throughout his life, Sassoon had several interesting links to Christianity: his mother was "a devout Christian all her life, and brought Sassoon up accordingly" (Wilson 1998, p. 23). Sassoon's faith was an important influence on his poetry, particularly his early writing (including his first war poem, "Absolution"). When he began to question his faith, Christianity continued to provide Sassoon with a wealth of imagery, which he often employed to satiric effect - notably in his poems "The Redeemer", "Stand To: Good Friday Morning", and "Everyman", the latter collected here for the first time - and provided the central theme for his later collections, following his conversion to Catholicism in 1957. Vigils resulted from Sassoon asking his friend, the pioneering surgeon and eminent bibliographer Geoffrey Keynes, for advice on issuing a limited edition of his poems. Keynes "suggested presenting these 'serious and reflective poems' in a 'novel and attractive form' by having the entire book engraved on copper plates in a script based on Sassoon's own beautiful hand" (Wilson 2003, p. 273). Vigils was issued in May 1934 in a total edition of 303 copies, and the trade edition followed in 1935. Keynes would later write Sassoon's Bibliography (1962). Octavo. Original brown cloth-backed boards by John P. Gray & Sons Ltd, Cambridge, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Copper-engraved title page with scythe and hourglass design by Stephen Gooden, text engraved on copper by Charles Sigrist, printed on rectos only. Extremities a little rubbed, one corner lightly worn, free endpapers browned, contents crisp. A near-fine copy. Keynes A39. Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Siegfried Sassoon: The Making of a War Poet, A Biography, 1886-1918, 1998; idem, Siegfried Sassoon: The Journey from the Trenches: A Biography, 1918-1967, 2003.