A150 POEMS ABOUT WAR [1988]
a. First edition:
ROBERT GRAVES | [one line in open letters:] POEMS ABOUT WAR | [publisher’s emblem] | CASSELL
Collation: [1]-[3]16, 48 leaves.
p. [1] POEMS ABOUT WAR; p. [2] blank; p. [3] title-page; p. [4] publisher’s, copyright; rights reservation, BL cataloguing, ISBN and printer’s notices; pp. [5] – [6] CONTENTS; pp. 7–8 INTRODUCTION; pp. 9–11 ‘POETRY OF WORLD WAR I’ | BY ROBERT GRAVES; p. [12] blank; pp. 13–79 text; pp. 80–91 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES; pp. [92] – [96] blank.
21.6 ×13.5 cm. Bulk: 0.7/ 1.4 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers. Bound in grey simulated cloth; front and back blank; spine stamped in gold: [top to bottom:] ROBERT GRAVES [three words in open letters:] POEMS ABOUT WAR CASSELL [upright:] [publisher’s emblem]
Price: £8.95. Number of copies: undetermined. Published 11 November 1988 in white dust-jacket printed in black and gold.
Contents: Introduction – ‘Poetry of World War I’ by Robert Graves – In Over the Brazier - Mostly 1915: On Finding Myself a Soldier – The Shadow of Death - A Renascence – The Morning Before the Battle – Limbo – The Trenches – The First Funeral – The Adventure – I Hate the Moon – Big Words – The Dead Fox Hunter – It’s a Queer Time – 1915 – Over the Brazier – In Goliath and David - Mostly 1916: The Bough of Nonsense – Goliath and David – The Last Post – A Dead Boche – Not Dead – In Fairies and Fusiliers - Mostly 1917: The Legion – To Lucasta on Going to the Wars–for the Fourth Time – Two Fusiliers – To R. N. – Dead Cow Farm – Sorley’s Weather – When I’m Killed – Familiar Letter to Siegfried Sassoon – The Next War – A Child’s Nightmare – Corporal Stare – The Assault Heroic– Previously Unpublished 1915-1918: Through the Periscope – Died of Wounds – The Savage Story of Cardonette – The Patchwork Quilt – Trench Life – In Country Sentiment 1918-1920: Haunted – Retrospect: The Jests of the Clock – Here They Lie – Tom Taylor – Country at War – Sospan Fach – The Leveller – Hate Not, Fear Not – A Rhyme of Friends – Other: Sergeant-Major Money – Peace – Bazentin, 1916 – Armistice Day, 1918 – An Occasion – A Letter From Wales – A Dedication of Three Hats – Recalling War – Bibliographical Notes
Note: Prepublication copies sent out by Cassell for review were furnished in dust-jackets that do not bear a printed price. Examples of this jacket are also seen with a white label printed in black: CASSELL | £8.95 affixed to the front flap. Copies for general sales were issued in jackets with the front flap bearing the printed price: £8.95. The back flap of these jackets is headed with a 29-line blurb about Graves, followed by a list of other titles by Graves published by Cassell. The jacket of the second impression has no printed price, but has a price label, as described above. The back flap has been reset; the text begins with a quotation by Stephen Spender dated 11 November 1988.
Impressions: 2nd, 1988.
b. American issue [(1990)]:
ROBERT GRAVES | POEMS ABOUT WAR | Edited with a commentary by | WILLIAM GRAVES | MOYER BELL LIMITED | MOUNT KISCO, NEW YORK & LONDON
Collation: 52 leaves, glued at the spine.
pp. [i] – [ii] blank; p. [1] POEMS ABOUT WAR; p. [2] blank; p. [3] title-page; p. [4] publisher’s, copyright, rights reservation, LOC cataloging, printer’s and distribution notices; pp. [5] – [6] CONTENTS; pp. 7-8 INTRODUCTION; pp. 9-11 ‘POETRY OF WORLD WAR I’ | BY ROBERT GRAVES; p. [12] blank; pp. 13-79 text; p. 80 ADDENDUM: THE PATCHWORK FLAG; p. 81-87; pp. 88-99 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES; p. [100] COLOPHON; pp. [101] – [102] blank.
20.3 × 12.7 cm. Bulk: 0.8 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. Bound in white paper covers printed in grey, purple, dark red and black. Front cover printed overall in grey: [purple band] | [in dark red:] ROBERT GRAVES | [dark red band] | [black and white photo of Graves in army uniform, showing head and neck only] | [dark red band] | [three lines in purple:] [square] POEMS [square] | [square] ABOUT [square] | [square] WAR [square] | [in dark red:] [square] | [purple band]; back cover printed overall in grey: [purple band] | [in purple:] POEMS ABOUT WAR | [two lines in black:] ROBERT GRAVES | WILLIAM GRAVES, ED. | [5 paragraphs of blurbs in black except the initial letter of fifth paragraph which is in dark red] | [two lines in purple:] MOYER BELL LIMITED | 1-55921-030-3 | [purple band]; spine printed overall in grey: [purple band] | [down spine:] [two words in dark red:] ROBERT GRAVES [remainder in purple:] [square] POEMS ABOUT WAR [square] [upright:] [publisher’s emblem]
Price: $9.95. The book does not bear a printed price. Number of copies: 2,124.
Contents: As A150a, but with the addition of ‘Addendum: The Patchwork Flag,’ ‘Letter to S. S. from ‘Bryn-y-Pin;’ ‘Night March;’ ‘Poetic Injustice.’
Notes: The following is quoted from the Colophon, p. [100]: “This volume is revised slightly from the first edition published in England in 1988. The editor has included an addendum with four additional poems and made minor changes to the notations…”
Impressions: 2nd, 1997, (573 copies).