Fairies and Fusiliers - inscribed by Siegfried Sassoon

GRAVES, ROBERT. (SASSOON, SIEGFRIED)

Published by Heinemann, London, 1917

About this Item

First edition. Inscribed by Sassoon on the half-title (in pencil, using his monogram) to his great friend and mentor, the pioneering neurologist (and polymath) Sir Henry Head: "H.H. from SS. July 12th 1926". As is well-known, in 1917 Graves advised his friend Sassoon to seek medical treatment in order to avoid a court-martial for the latter's very public opposition to the war. The two headed north to Craiglockhart hospital in Scotland where they met the psychiatrist W.H.R. Rivers who was conducting ground-breaking research with Head on the theory of the regeneration of the nervous system following trauma (largely as a result of self-experimentation in Head's case) and thereby providing a catchy title for Pat Barker's 1991 Booker Prize-nominated novel on the subject. On the day of the inscription, Sassoon had visited the Heads in Kent and recorded in his diary: "With the Heads I feel almost brutally young & healthy; and Henry is so entirely an invalid now, reduced to the physical helplessness of a young child. But my presence stimulates him & we were all as merry as could be till the shadow of my departure settled on us, & I left them standing their [sic] with their trouble." Graves had originally intended to dedicate the volume to Sassoon but famously changed his mind and gave that honour to his regiment, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. He later dedicated "Poetic Unreason" (1925) to Head. A very good copy somewhat faded at spine, lacking the scarce dustwrapper. Seller Inventory # 20513

Bibliographic Details

Title: Fairies and Fusiliers - inscribed by ...

Publisher: Heinemann, London

Publication Date: 1917

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: 1st Edition