CONNOLLY, Cyril. The Condemned Playground. Essays: 1927-1944. London: Routledge, [1945]. 8°. Half title, half tone portrait frontispiece. Original black cloth, dust-jacket. PRESENTATION COPY, the front free endpaper inscribed, “Anthony from Cyril – this playground, condemned even in the architectural sense – ie. Remaindered* - 1961! Habent sua fata libelli – Easter 1961. *a very staunch test for a collector”, with a 2-page autograph letter on books and book collecting from the author to Anthony Hobson loosely-inserted, and another note by Connolly relating to Stephen Spender’s appearances in print. With 4 other books by the same author, namely Enemies of Promise (New York, 1948, “revised edition”, original cloth, without the dust-jacket, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed “Peter [Watson] from Cyril”), Ideas and Places (London, [1953], original cloth, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed “Peter [Watson] with love from Cyril”), Previous Convictions (London, [1963], original cloth, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed, “Anthony & Tanya with love from Cyril [with poetic quotation]…” and The Evening Colonnade (London, 1973, proof copy, wrappers, later slipcase, PRESENTATION COPY, the front free endpaper inscribed, “Anthony with love from Cyril, his fellow Virginian [followed by an extensive note by the author on the collection’s troubled publishing history]”, further signed by the author on the title, and with sparse manuscript corrections in the author’s hand. (5)