A121 THE POOR BOY WHO FOLLOWED HIS STAR [1968]

a. First edition:

[in roman and shaded type] THE POOR BOY | WHO FOLLOWED HIS | STAR | AND CHILDREN’S POEMS | [illustration] | by ROBERT GRAVES | illustrated by Alice Meyer-Wallace | CASSELL ∙ LONDON

Collation: A8[B]8C8, 24 leaves.

p.[i] THE POOR BOY WHO FOLLOWED HIS STAR | and Children’s Poems; p.[ii] blank; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] publisher’s, copyright, S.B.N. and printer’s notices; p.1 CONTENTS; p.[2] illustration, running onto p.[3]; pp.3–44 text, with pp.[28, 30–31, 40] being unnumbered, pp.[6] 10, [22], 26, [32], 35, [41], 42 containing illustrations and no text.

21.6 × 14.9 cm. Bulk: 0.4/1.0 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers. Bound in light blue simulated cloth; front and back blank; spine stamped in gold, bottom to top: Cassell [device] THE POOR BOY WHO FOLLOWED HIS STAR [device] Robert Graves

Price: 18s. Number of copies unknown. Published 8 April 1968 in white dust-jacket printed in black, blue and yellow.

Contents: Hide and Seek – The Hero – The Poor Boy Who Followed His Star – At Seventy-Two.

Notes: The illustrations are in black and white and appear on every page.

This book has been translated into Afrikaans.

In the title poem and in ‘At Seventy-Two’ the old man in the illustration is Graves.

There are variant copies bound in dark blue simulated cloth.

A121b. First American edition [1969]:

[set left:] The | [set one space further left:] Poor Boy | Who [star] | Followed | [set right:] His Star | Robert Graves | Illustrated by Alice Meyer-Wallace | Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York

Collation: [1] – [3]16, stabbed not sewn, 24 leaves.

2 pp. blank; p.[1] [set right:] The | Poor Boy | Who [star] | Followed | His Star; p.[2] blank; p. [3] title-page; p. [4] LC card, copyright, rights reservation, printing, edition and source notices; p.[5] as p.[1]; p.[6] illustration; pp.7–40 [41] text, with pp.[10, 17, 22, 26, 32, 35, 41] containing illustrations and no text and pp.[13,16,19, 20, 24, 28, 30, 34, 36, 39] being unnumbered; p.[42] blank; p. 43 About the Author; pp.[44]–[46] blank.

23.4 × 15.3 cm. Bulk: 0.5/1.0 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers. Bound in slick white cloth; back and front blank; spine stamped in black from top to bottom: The Poor Boy | Who Followed | His Star Robert Graves Doubleday

Price: $3.50. Number of copies undetermined. Published 6 June 1969 in white dust-jacket printed in blue, yellow, green and black; a photograph of Graves by Marion Morehouse on back.

Notes: Illustrations appear on every page of text.

An unknown number of copies were bound in a reinforced institutional (library) binding of slick white paper-covered boards with the front printed as the front panel of the dust-jacket in blue, yellow, green and black; the spine printed in black and blue: [down spine:] The Poor Boy Who Followed His Star [remainder in blue:] Robert Graves Doubleday; back in white, unprinted. The dust-jacket has a gold label printed in black, running from front panel to rear panel and reading on front: [publisher’s Anchor emblem] | A DOUBLEDAY | REINFORCED | LIBRARY EDITON