A3 FAIRIES AND FUSILIERS [1917]
a. First edition:
FAIRIES AND | FUSILIERS | BY | ROBERT GRAVES | [publisher’s emblem] | LONDON | WILLIAM HEINEMANN
Collation: [A]4 χ2 B–L4 M2, 48 leaves.
2 pp. blank; p.[i] FAIRIES AND FUSILIERS; p.[ii] publisher’s advertisements; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] publisher’s notice; p.[v] TO THE ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS; p.[vi] blank; p.[vii] acknowledgement; p.[viii] blank; pp.[ix–x] CONTENTS; pp.[1–83] text; p.[84] text and printer’s notice.
18.0 × 11.9 cm. Bulk: 1.3/1.6 cm. Heavy white wove paper; all edges trimmed. Light white wove endpapers. Bound in orange-red cloth; front and back blank; spine stamped in gold: Fairies | and | Fusiliers | [leaf and curlicue design] | Robert | Graves | HEINEMANN
Price: 3s. 6d. Number of copies: 1,000. Published 8 November 1917 in grey-green dust-jacket printed in black.
Contents: To an Ungentle Critic – The Legion – To Lucasta on Going to the Wars–for the Fourth Time – Two Fusiliers – To Robert Nichols – Dead Cow Farm – Goliath and David – Babylon – Mr. Philosopher – The Cruel Moon – Finland – A Pinch of Salt – The Caterpillar – Sorley’s Weather – The Cottage – The Last Post –When I’m Killed – Letter to S.S. from Mametz Wood – A Dead Boche – Faun – The Spoilsport – The Shivering Beggar – Jonah – John Skelton – I Wonder What It Feels Like to be Drowned? – Double Red Daisies – Careers – I’d Love to Be a Fairy’s Child – The Next War – Strong Beer – Marigolds – The Lady Visitor in the Pauper’s Ward – Love and Black Magic – Smoke-Rings – A Child’s Nightmare – Escape – The Bough of Nonsense – Not Dead – A Boy in Church – Corporal Stare – The Assault Heroic – The Poet in the Nursery – In the Wilderness – Cherry-Time – 1915 – Free Verse
Notes: Earlier editions of this bibliography state that the book is bound in wine-red cloth. I have examined two such copies; they are a variant or secondary binding. A review copy of the book examined was bound in orange-red ‘B’ type cloth (See Bibliography of American Literature for cloth types) stamped in gilt on the spine. The word “HEINEMANN” on the spine is 2.0 cm. in length.
The variant binding is red ‘CM’ type cloth (See Bibliography of American Literature for cloth types) stamped in gold on the spine. The word “HEINEMANN” on the spine is 1.6 cm. in length.
Impressions: 2nd , January 1919; it collates [A]4 B–L4 [M]4, 48 leaves; p.[iv] adds an edition notice; size: 18.0 × 12.0 cm.; bound in bright red cloth.
‘Double Red Daisies’ and ‘Dead Cow Farm’ appeared in the same month (November 1917) in Oxford Poetry 1917 (see B1.1), (Oxford: Blackwell, 1917), pp.24-25. “Finland” had an almost simultaneous appearance in the Poetry Bookshop’s New Broadside, No. 14, 1917.
A3b. First American edition (1918):
Fairies | and Fusiliers | By | Robert Graves | [publisher’s emblem] | New York | Alfred A. Knopf | MCMXVIII
Collation: [1] –15]8 [6]4 [7]8, 52 leaves.
p.[i] [2 ll. at upper left:] Fairies | and Fusiliers | [at lower right:] [publisher’s emblem]; p.[ii] publisher’s advertisement; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] copyright and printing notices; p. [v] TO | THE ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS; p.[vi] blank; p. [vii] acknowledgement; p.[viii] blank; pp.[ix]–[x] CONTENTS; pp.l–94 text.
15.5 × 10.3 cm. Bulk 1.0/1.4 cm. White wove paper watermarked with a D in a diamond and a script Regal Antique; top and fore-edges trimmed; top edge stained chartreuse. White wove endpapers. Bound in blue boards; chartreuse label pasted from front to back across spine; on front and back: [rule] | FAIRIES | AND FUSILIERS | POEMS BY | ROBERT GRAVES | [rule]; on spine: [rule] | Fairies | and | Fusiliers | by | Robert | Graves | 1918 | [rule].
Contents: The contents are as A3a except ‘The Legion’ has been re-titled as ‘An Old Twenty-Third Man’.
Price: $1.00. Number of copies undisclosed. Published early November 1918 in green dust-jacket printed in violet.
Notes: There is a variant with two blank leaves following p. 94. I have noted a copy in a dust-jacket with price overprinted in violet ink and a new price of $1.25 added.
This book is listed under the heading “LATEST PUBLICATIONS” in The New York Times, 3 November 1918, p. 36.
Norwood Editions published photographic reprints in 1977 and 1978.
A3c. Second American edition (1919):
FAIRIES | AND FUSILIERS | BY | ROBERT GRAVES | [publisher’s emblem] | NEW YORK | ALFRED · A · KNOPF | MCMXIX
Collation: [1] –[6]8, 48 leaves.
p.[3] [2 ll. at right:] FAIRIES | AND FUSILIERS; p.[4] publisher’s advertisements; p.[5] title-page; p.[6] copyright and printing notices; p.[7] TO | THE ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS; p.[8] acknowledgement; p.[9]–[10] CONTENTS; p.[11] [flush right:] FAIRIES AND FUSILIERS; p.[12] blank; pp. 13–97 text; p.[98] blank.
15.4 × 10.2 cm. Bulk: 0.9/1.1 cm. White wove paper watermarked OLDE STYLE; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers watermarked OLDE STYLE. Bound in maroon cloth embossed with fine diagonal crosshatching; chartreuse label as A3b, printed in blue; 1918 becomes 1919.
Price: $1.25. Number of copies undisclosed. Published in May 1919.
Notes: Copies were also issued in the binding of A3b. Here, 1918 becomes 1919 on label.
References: Mason/1988, p. 7; Higginson A3c, p. 17; Sarner A3c; pp.2-3.