SELECT POEMS DIVINE AND HUMANE

Bloomsbury [London]: Nonesuch Press, 1928. No. 142 of 1,250 copies. 201 x 120 mm. (7 7/8 x 4 3/4"). 4 p.l., 51, [1] (blank), iv pp., [2] leaves.
Publisher's limp vellum, gilt design on upper cover, flat spine with gilt titling. In the original glassine jacket (lacking most of spine) and original cardboard slipcase, slightly worn. Dreyfus 54. ◆A breath of browning just to untrimmed edges, otherwise A PRISTINE COPY, well protected for 90 years by its original jacket and slipcase.

The verse of Thomas Beedome (d. 1641) includes love poems, elegies for such figures as his friend John Donne and Gustav Adolphus of Sweden, and religious works. Somewhat in the manner of Donne, they were published in 1641 after his death, and a pirated edition came out in 1657. Thereafter they languished until Meynell took an interest in them and edited them for this printing. The Nonesuch Press was founded in 1923 by typographer and book designer Francis Meynell (1891-1975) with the help of his friend David Garnett and his future wife, Vera Mendel. Meynell designed his books on a small Albion hand press, but had them printed commercially in order to keep the price of well-designed books made of quality materials within the means of readers and collectors who could not afford most private press editions..