A17 ROBERT GRAVES [1925]
First edition:
[rectangular heavy rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular light rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular broad decorative rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular light rule box enclosing all:] | THE AUGUSTAN BOOKS OF | MODERN POETRY | [rule] | [author’s name in open type:] ROBERT | GRAVES | [rule] | LONDON: ERNEST BENN LTD. | 8, BOUVER1E STREET, E.C.4
Collation: 16 leaves, unsigned, stapled twice at centre.
p.[i] title-page; p.[ii] publisher’s advertisement and printer’s notice; p.iii ROBERT GRAVES; p.iv CONTENTS; pp.5–30 text; p.31 BIBLIOGRAPHY; p.[32] publisher’s advertisements.
22.1 × 14.0 cm. Bulk: 0.2 cm. White wove paper; top and fore-edges trimmed. Pp.[i]–[ii] and 31–[32] serve as covers.
Price: 6d. Number of copies unknown. Published in November 1925.
Contents: In the Wilderness – A Boy in Church – Escape – Vain and Careless – Pot and Kettle – Song: One Hard Look – Dicky – Ghost Raddled – Allie – A Frosty Night – Rocky Acres – A Lover Since Childhood – A Crusader – The Ridge-Top – Song of Contrariety – A Forced Music – I Am the Star of Morning – The North Window – The Rainbow and the Sceptic – Diplomatic Relations – Alice – The Presence – From Our Ghostly Enemy
Notes: Ellsworth Mason records a variant copy stitched twice at the centre with all edges trimmed. Printed by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford and Esher.
This book was edited by Edward Thompson.
Second impression:
The second impression of 1926 is printed from the same plates save for the cover leaves (pp.[i]–[ii] and 31–[32]) which are reset. The variants are as follows: title-page: [rectangular heavy rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular light rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular broad decorative border enclosing all:] | [rectangular light rule box enclosing all:] | THE AUGUSTAN BOOKS OF | MODERN POETRY | [author’s name in open type:] ROBERT GRAVES | London: Ernest Benn Ltd. | BOUVERIE HOUSE, FLEET STREET
Collation: as in first impression.
p.[i] title-page; p.[ii] publisher’s advertisement [no printer’s notice]; and p.[32] publisher’s advertisements and printer’s notice have all been re-set.
22.0 × 14.0 cm. Bulk: 0.2 cm. White wove paper; top and fore-edges trimmed.
Price: 6d. Number of copies unknown. Published October 1926.
Notes: In examining several copies of this impression, two were stapled twice at centre and with top and fore-edges trimmed. Six copies examined were identical except they were sewn twice at the centre.
Printed by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford and Esher.
Copies of the second impression of A17 were also issued bound up by the publisher with the works of other authors in Augustan Books of Poetry (First Series): Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Laurence Binyon, Edmund Blunden, Wilfred Gibson and Maurice Baring. Bound in tan cloth, stamped in red.
Third impression:
AUGUSTAN BOOKS OF POETRY | [author’s name in open type:] ROBERT | GRAVES | NO. 13 BENN 6d
Collation: 16 leaves, unsigned, sewn twice at centre.
p. [1] title-page; p. [2] publisher’s advertisements, listing Numbers 1-116 in the Augustan Books of Poetry series; p. [3] ROBERT GRAVES | [a three-paragraph biographical note] | First published, November, 1925 | Second impression, October, 1926 | Third impression, November, 1932; p. 4 CONTENTS; pp. 5-30 text; p. [31] BIBLIOGRAPHY and printer’s notice; p. [32] blank
21.1 × 13.6 cm. Bulk: 0.2 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed.
Price: 6d. Number of copies unknown. Published in November 1932.
Pages [1], [2], [3], 4, [31] and [32] have been reset. Printed by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford and Esher.
Note: Modified copies are seen in unprinted wine-red cloth-effect paper covers with a rectangular cut-out on the front with only the author’s name showing through from the original front cover. The new covers were added by the firm of Eyre & Spottiswoode who acquired the Ernest Benn, Ltd. stock, upon Benn’s dissolution.
This is the same paper stock used on the covers of some copies of A25 and A27, as well as Eyer & Spotiswoode’s A56.