Collected Poems. Chariot of the Sun, [with] introduction by D.H. Lawrence; Transit of Venus, with a preface by T.S. Eliot; Sleeping Together, with a memory of the poet by Stuart Gilbert; Torchbearer, with notes by Ezra Pound

Crosby, Harry

Published by Black Sun Press, Paris, 1931

About this Item

First edition, four volumes in publisher s slipcase. 68; 62; 65, ix; 44, viii pp. Original publisher s cream wrappers, lettered in red on the front cover and spine and black on the front cover, glassine jackets, in the publisher s red cloth slipcase. Some very light marginal browning, a few leaves lightly spotted or marked, slight chipping to the heads and tails of the spines (as usually seen). Glassine spine of Sleeping Together missing, glassine browned and slightly chipped at the spines of the other volumes, slipcase rubbed but solid. Number 24 of an edition of possibly 500 on Lafuma (see below). Following Harry Crosby s suicide in 1929, Caresse Crosby edited his collected poems for publication, comprising three volumes that had previously been published (volumes I-III), supplemented with unpublished work that was gathered in Torchbearer. A preface written for Chariot of the Sun by D.H. Lawrence, but omitted from the first edition, served as an introduction to the first volume of the set, and commentaries for the other volumes were commissioned from Eliot, Gilbert and Pound. The prospectus states that 50 sets will be printed on Holland Van Gelder and that 500 sets will be printed on uncut Navarre paper, a limitation that was then revised to 20 lettered copies on Japanese Vellum, 50 numbered copies on Holland Paper and 'the sheets for five hundred copies on uncut Navarre' on the colophons of the published volumes. Despite this, Harry F. Marks, the American agent for the edition, "stated that to the best of his knowledge, the sets on Japanese vellum were never printed, and the full fifty copies on Holland [.] were probably not published." (Gallup, Pound). Gallup further notes that: "No copy on Holland paper has been seen. At least several of the Navarre copies were numbered, in some instances with numbers between 1 and 50 theoretically reserved for the Holland sets. In the Navarre copies the paper is watermarked: PAPETERIES LAFUMA." Gallup also records two variant bindings; the first dated 1931 at the foot of the spine (as here) and the second (which he describes as possibly later) with the author s name at the foot of the spine. The original prospectus, which contains some valuable bibliographical information (see above), is laid in. References: Minkoff A-42; Published in Paris p. 409; Roberts, D.H. Lawrence, B33; Gallup, T.S. Eliot, B22; Gallup, Ezra Pound, B25.

Seller Inventory # 2509

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Collected Poems. Chariot of the Sun, [with] introduction by D.H. Lawrence; Transit of Venus, with a preface by T.S. Eliot; Sleeping Together, with a memory of the poet by Stuart Gilbert; Torchbearer, with notes by Ezra Pound
• Publisher: Black Sun Press, Paris
• Publication Date: 1931
• Seller catalogs:
  • Avant-Garde
  • Fine Printing
  • Poetry
  • Literature
  • Modernism