A75 THE CROWNING PRIVILEGE [1955]

a. First edition:

THE CROWNING | PRIVILEGE | THE CLARK LECTURES | 1954–1955 | ALSO VARIOUS ESSAYS ON POETRY | AND | SIXTEEN NEW POEMS | by | ROBERT GRAVES | [publisher’s emblem] | CASSELL & COMPANY LTD ; LONDON

Collation: [A]8B–P8, 120 leaves.

p.[i] THE CROWNING PRIVILEGE; p.[ii] list of books by Graves; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] publisher’s, copyright, publication and printer’s notices; p.[v] To the Masters and Fellows of | Trinity College, Cambridge | in gratitude; p.[vi] blank; pp.vii—viii CONTENTS; p.ix FOREWORD; p.[x] blank; p.[1] THE CLARK LECTURES | 1954–1955; p.[2] blank; pp.3–135 text; p. [136] blank; p.[137] VARIOUS ESSAYS | ON POETRY; p.[138] blank; pp.l39–214 text; p.215–230 SIXTEEN NEW POEMS

21.3 × 15.7 cm. Bulk: 1.6/2.1 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers. Bound in black cloth; front and back blank; spine stamped in gold: The | Crowning | Privilege | ROBERT | GRAVES | CASSELL

Price: 15s. Number of copies: 3,012. Published 22 September 1955 in cream dust-jacket printed in green and black.

Contents: Foreword – The Clark Lectures, 1954–1955: 1. The Crowning Privilege –2. The Age of Obsequiousness – 3. The Road to Rydal Mount – 4. Harp, Anvil, Oar – 5. Dame Ocupacyon – 6. These Be Your Gods, O Israel! – Various Essays on Poetry: Mother Goose’s Lost Goslings – The Old Black Cow – The Essential E.E. Cummings – Juana de Asbaje – Poems by Juana de Asbaje, with translations – The Poet and His Public – Best Man, Bore, Bamboozle, Etc. – Theft – Kynge Arther is Nat Dede – Dr Syntax and Mr Pound – Sixteen New Poems: TheClearing – A Lost jewel – The Three Pebbles – The Question – The Window Sill – The Sea Horse – Spoils – Beauty in Trouble – Poets’ Corner – End of the World – Penthesileia – To a Pebble in My Shoe – The Tenants – Coronation Address – My Moral Forces – Interview.

Note: Contents differ from those in A75b–c.

A75b. First American edition (1956):

[four lines flush right:] The | Crowning | Privilege | COLLECTED ESSAYS ON POETRY | [two lines flush left:] by ROBERT GRAVES | DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC., GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK, 1956

Collation: [1] – [10]16, 160 leaves.

pp.[i]–[iv] blank; p.[1] [flush right:] THE CROWNING PRIVILEGE; p.[2] blank; p.[3] list of books by Graves; p.[4] blank; p. [5] title-page; p.[6] [flush right:] publisher’s, copyright, printer’s, designer’s and edition notices; p.p.[7] [flush right:] To the Masters and Fellows | of Trinity College, Cambridge; in gratitude; p. [8] blank; p. [9] [flush right:] FOREWORD; p.[10] blank; pp.11–12 [flush right:] CONTENTS; p. [13] [flush right:] THE CLARK LECTURES | 1954–1955; p.[14] blank; pp.[15]16–142 text, with pp.[36, 55, 79, 100, 119] being unnumbered; p.[143] [flush right:] VARIOUS ESSAYS ON POETRY; p. [144] blank; pp.[145]146–218 text, with pp.[160, 166, 171, 189, 196, 201, 210, 216] being unnumbered; p.[219] [flush right:] THE COMMON ASPHODEL; p.[220] blank; pp.[221]222–311 text, with pp. [239, 280, 293, 296, 308] being unnumbered; pp.[312] –[316] blank.

20.9 × 13.9 cm. Bulk: 2.3/2.8 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers. Bound in yellow cloth; front and back blank; spine printed in blue: THE CROWNING | PRIVILEGE [in red: device of thirteen winged crowns about circle] | Robert | Graves | DOUBLEDAY

Price: $5.00 Number of copies: 4,000 (in two printings). Published 5 July 1956 in white dust-jacket printed in dark olive, yellow and reddish purple.

Contents: Omits poems of A75a and adds the following essays from A63: Loving Mad Tom – Nietzsche – Coleridge and Wordsworth – Keats and Shelley – Lucretius and Jeans – How Poets See – ‘Mad Mr. Swinburne’ – The Ghost of Milton – The Common Asphodel.

Note: A photographic reprint of this edition was published in 1970 by Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, New York.

A75c. Second British edition ([1959]):

THE | CROWNING PRIVILEGE | Collected Essays on Poetry by ROBERT GRAVES | PENGUIN BOOKS

Collation: [1]82–228, 176 leaves.

p.[1] PELICAN BOOKS | A451 | THE CROWNING PRIVILEGE | ROBERT GRAVES | [publisher’s emblem]; p.[2] blank; p.[3] title-page; p.[4] publisher’s, publication, copyright and printer’s notices; p.[5] TO THE MASTERS AND FELLOWS | OF TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE | IN GRATITUDE; p.[6] blank;p.[7] CONTENTS; p.[8] blank; p. [9] FOREWORD; p.[10] blank; p.[11] THE CLARK LECTURES | 1954–1955; p.[12] blank; pp.13–157[158] text, with pp.[36, 58, 85, 109, 131] being unnumbered; p.[159] VARIOUS ESSAYS ON POETRY; p.[160] blank; pp.161–243[244] text, with pp.[177, 183, 189, 201, 210, 218, 224, 234, 241] being unnumbered; p. [245] THE COMMON ASPHODEL; p.[246] blank; pp.247–346[347] text, with pp.[266, 313, 327, 330, 343] being unnumbered; p.[348] blank; p.[349] publisher’s advertisement; p.[350] blank; pp. [351]–[352] publisher’s advertisements.

18.0 × 11.0 cm. Bulk: 1.6 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. Bound in white paper covers printed in blue and black.

Price: 4s. Number of copies: 25,000. Published 28 May 1959.

Contents: As A75b.