The Works. by HARDY, Thomas - 1919-20

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1919-20. The Mellstock Hardy in a contemporary binding The Mellstock edition, one of 500 sets signed by the author on the limitation page of volume I. The Mellstock is one of the most attractive collected editions of Hardy, printed in a clear and legible type, this set in an attractive binding by the noted Atelier Bindery for Charles Scribner's Sons.
At Hardy's suggestion the edition was named after his fictional "Mellstock", a combination of the Dorset hamlet Stinsford, where his heart is now buried, with the Higher and Lower Bockhamptons. The publication was originally projected in July 1914 but was halted by the outbreak of the First World War. The text is largely a resetting of the Wessex edition with the exception of A Pair of Blue Eyes, for which Hardy sent the publishers five pages of corrections and additions on 18 June 1919 (Purdy, p. 288). 37 volumes, octavo. Contemporary blue crushed half morocco by the Atelier Bindery for Charles Scribner's Sons, gilt-tooled raised bands to spines forming compartments, titles direct to second and third with date to foot gilt, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, light blue cloth sides ruled in gilt, marbled endpapers. Half-titles, title-pages and terminal licence-leaves printed in red and black, etched portrait frontispiece after William Strang to vol. I, map frontispiece to vol. II. Original cloth cover and spine bound in at rear of vol. I. Partly unopened, spines attractively sunned to dark green, very occasional faint spotting to the cloth, the morocco gently darkening in a few places as usual. An excellent set. Purdy, pp. 287-288.