SECTION A: Books written, co-written or translated by Robert Graves

A20 THE ENGLISH BALLAD 1927

a. First edition:

Collation: [A]8 B–H816, 70 leaves.

p.[1] [at top right:] The | English Ballad; p.[2] blank; p.[3] title-page; p.[4] TO | MY FATHER and printing notice; p.5 INDEX OF BALLADS; p.6 completion of index and acknowledgements; pp. 7–36 INTRODUCTION; p.[37] [at top right:] BALLADS; p.[38] blank; pp.39–138 text; p. 139 text and printer’s notice; p. [140] blank.

18.8 × 12.7 cm. Bulk: 1.7/2.1 cm. White wove paper; top edges only trimmed.

Price: 6s. Number of copies unknown. Published in January 1927 in yellow dust-jacket printed in black.

Contents: Introduction – The Maid Freed from the Gallows: or, The Briary Bush – The Cleveland Lyke Wake Dirge – The False Knight on the Road – The Twa Corbies – Kemp Owyne – Sir Patrick Spens – The Wife of Usher’s Well – Graeme and Bewick – The Demon Lover – The Battle of Otterbourne – Johnny Cock – The Cherry Tree Carol – Hugh of Lincoln – Bruton Town – Robin Hood and the Three Squires – The Old Cloak – Wednesbury Cocking – The Night before Larry Was Stretched – The Unquiet Grave – Waly, Waly – The Holy Land of Walsinghame – Loving Mad Tom – The Children in the Wood – The Welsh Buccaneers – The Death of King Edward VII – The Compleat History of Bob of Lyn – The Peeler and the Goat – Boney – Blow the Man Down – Jack o’ Diamonds – Jesse James – ‘I Want to go Home’ – The Top of the Dixie Lid – Two Red Roses across the Moon

Notes: Some copies have an extra spine label tipped in at p.[140].

I have examined a copy bound in bright red cloth. The pages measure 18.8 × 12.7 cm. Bulk: 1.7/2.1 cm., conforming to Higginson & Williams’s measurements. The vertical dimension of the covers is 19.5 cm. and the vertical dimension of the dust-jacket is 19.7 cm., thus the dust-jacket is slightly too tall for the book. Two other copies were seen bound in dusky rose cloth. The pages measure 18.4 × 12.6 cm. Bulk: 1.7/2.2 cm. The vertical dimension of the covers is 18.9 cm. and the vertical dimension of the dust-jacket is 19.0 cm.

A copy with unopened pages was offered in Catalogue 213 (circa 1939), item 395 of Frank Hollings, a London bookseller.

In 1970 Folcroft Press, Folcroft, Pennsylvania published a photographic facsimile in an edition of 150 copies.

In 1971 Haskell House published a photographic facsimile of this edition.

A20b. Second English edition (revised) ([1957]):

Collation: [A]8 B–M8, 96 leaves.

p.[i] ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH | BALLADS; p.[ii] publisher’s advertisements; [frontispiece, back blank]; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] publication, publisher’s and printer’s notices; pp.v–vi CONTENTS; pp.vii–xxvi INTRODUCTION; p.[xxvii] BALLADS; p. [xxviii] blank; pp.1–143 text; p.[144] blank; pp. 145–160 NOTES TO THE BALLADS; pp. 161–163 INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES; p. [164] blank.

18.4 × 12.2 cm. Bulk: 0.9/1.3 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers. Bound in medium-blue simulated cloth boards; front and back blank; spine stamped in gold, top to bottom: Robert Graves [ornament] English and Scottish Ballads [ornament] Heinemann

Price: 9s. 6d. Number of copies undetermined. Published 6 May 1957 in white dust-jacket printed in black and magenta.

Contents: Introduction – Ballads: 1. The False Knight on the Road – 2. The Twa Sisters of Binnorie – 3. Lord Rendal – 4. Clerk Colvill – 5. Kemp Owyne – 6. Thomas the Rimer – 7. Sir Patrick Spens – 8. The Two Corbies – 9. Hugh of Lincoln – 10. The Cherry Tree Carol – 11. The Demon Lover – 12. Robin and Gandelyn – 13. The Cleveland Lyke Wake Dirge – 14. The Golden Vanitie – 15. Young Beichan – 16. Johnny of Cockley’s Well – 17. The Unquiet Grave – 18. Graeme and Bewick – 19. The Wife of Usher’s Well – 20. The Heron – 21. Jonny Faa, the Lord of Little Egypt – 22. King John and the Abbot – 23. Get Up and Bar the Door – 24. Loving Mad Tom – 25. The Dead Brother – 26. Chevy Chase – 27. Waly, Waly – 28. Barbara Allan – 29. Robin Hood and the Three Squires – 30. The Holy Land of Walsinghame – 31. Sir Andrew Barton – 32. Bruton Town – 33. The Death of Robin Hood – 34. The Gaberlunzie Man – 35. Admiral Benbow – 36. Wednesbury Cocking – 37. The Children in the Wood – 38. The Banished Duke of Grantham – Notes to the Ballads – Index of Titles and First Lines

Notes: The introduction is much revised from that of A20a.

Both A20b and A20c were printed in Great Britain.

The back flap of the dust-jacket of the first impression has advertisements for THE POETRY BOOKSHELF and lists Selected Poems of D. H. Lawrence, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Clare, Robert Browning and William Blake. Under the heading “FORTHCOMING TITLES” are listed Selected Poems of William Wordsworth, The Poets’ World, edited by James Reeves and The Later Augustans, edited by Donald Davie.

I have examined a copy of A20b which has a white label printed in black pasted over the printed price on the front flap of the dust-jacket. It reads: DISTRIBUTED BY | MACMILLAN

I suspect such copies were made up distribution in Canada.

Heinemann issued a second impression in 1962 in hardcover. A third impression in 1963, a fourth in 1968 and a fifth in 1969 were issued in hardcover and paper covers. The sixth and seventh impressions of 1977 and 1982 were issued in paper covers only. The paper cover impressions were issued in the publisher’s “Poetry Bookshelf” series in white paper covers printed in black.

A20c. First American edition (revised text) ([1957]):

Collation: as A20b.

Remainder as A20b, except p.[ii] blank; p.[vi] printing notice.

Size, bulk, endpapers and binding as A20b, except ‘Macmillan’ for ‘Heinemann’ on spine.

Price: $2.00. Number of copies undetermined. Published in July 1957 in dust-jacket

Note: The second edition of this bibliography reports an impression in 1969 by Barnes and Noble, which had taken over the Macmillan rights in the United States; this impression was simultaneously co-published in Great Britain by Heinemann.

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