Vigils : Signed Limited Edition : Presentation Copy To Osbert Sitwell: Scarce Association Copy

The sole UK printing privately printed for Douglas Cleverdon in 1934. The BOOK is in Very Good++ or better condition. Small quarto, original half rust cloth, uncut. Top edge gilt. Some splaying of the boards. Signed limited first edition, this being number 268 of only 303 copies signed and numbered by Sassoon on the colophon. This copy is one of 60 reserved presentation copies and additionally inscribed by Sassoon to the second bank end-paper with his characteristic interlocked double-S initials : 'O.S from S.S, these engraved gravities'. The recipient was the author (Sir) Osbert Sitwell. Osbert Sitwell had been introduced to Sassoon through their mutual friend Robbie Ross. These 22 poems 'were engraved on copper by Charles Sigrist, and printed May, 1934. The frontispiece was designed and engraved by Stephen Gooden.' After production of this limited edition, the plates were destroyed. The book is protected in a loose Mylar archival cover. Rupert Hart-Davis records that Sassoon 'longed for praise and recognition, but he was so instinctively reclusive, so unsure of his gifts and afraid of making a fool of himself, that he preferred his poems to appear first in small and expensive limited editions' (Sassoon, Diaries 1915-1918, 10). Keynes A39. A marginal pencil emendation to one poem as usually encountered. An excellent association copy of this scarce Sassoon limited edition. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.