SASSOON, Siegfried (1886-1967). Sonnets. [N.p.]: 'privately printed' [for the author], 1909. 4° (260 x 193mm). Title and text printed in red and black. (Some very light marginal browning.) Original cloth-backed blue boards (a little marked and rubbed).
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium. MODERN FIRST EDITIONS AND LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE LATE DR LIONEL DAKERS CBE (lots 180-238) The following 58 lots are from the collection of the late Dr Lionel Dakers CBE (1924-2003), organ master and church musician, who held the positions of Organist, Ripon Cathedral (1954-1957), Organist and Master of the Choristers, Exeter Cathedral (1957-1972), and director of The Royal School of Church Music (1972-1989). A discriminating and informed collector who assembled his library over more than fifty years, Dakers' particular passions were the writings of Siegfried Sassoon (forming a collection as remarkable for the calibre of the pieces as for its scope), T.E. Lawrence -- some of whose works and possessions he lent to the National Portrait Gallery's 'Centenary Exhibition' in 1988 -- and Henry Williamson (the latter becoming a friend and regular inscriber of presentation copies), and fine private press books. The library will be offered in three portions: the first, comprising modern first editions and literary manuscripts, in the present sale; the second, comprising the T.E. Lawrence collection, at Christie's King Street rooms in the sale of Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts on 15 November 2006; the third, comprising private press books and fine printing, in Christie's South Kensington rooms in the sale of Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts on 29 November 2006. (i) Siegfried Sassoon (lots 180-223)
SASSOON, Siegfried (1886-1967). Sonnets. [N.p.]: 'privately printed' [for the author], 1909. 4° (260 x 193mm). Title and text printed in red and black. (Some very light marginal browning.) Original cloth-backed blue boards (a little marked and rubbed).

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SASSOON, Siegfried (1886-1967). Sonnets. [N.p.]: 'privately printed' [for the author], 1909. 4° (260 x 193mm). Title and text printed in red and black. (Some very light marginal browning.) Original cloth-backed blue boards (a little marked and rubbed).

FIRST EDITION THUS, ONE OF C. 50 COPIES. TITLED, ANNOTATED AND AMENDED IN PENCIL BY SASSOON. This work was based on the Sonnets and Verses which had been printed for Sassoon earlier in the year in an edition of c.35 ordinary and three special copies; all but one of the ordinary copies was destroyed by the author 'in a fit of self-criticism' (Keynes A3; the remaining copy is at the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin). Eleven of the poems were reprinted in this edition (together with six new poems), which Sassoon described as 'drastically revised and rather sumptuously reprinted from the destroyed edition' (The Weald of Youth, London: 1942, p. 87). This copy is remarkable for the corrections and annotations: on [A]1r Sassoon has added a title in pencil reading 'SONNETS. BY LORD SIMON SNOOKS. [rule]'; nine of the seventeen poems have been corrected in pencil, some lightly, but in 'Perilous Music' virtually rewriting the octave; five of the poems are annotated below with the date on which they were published in the magazine Academy. Although the copy which Keynes describes is similarly amended and annotated (as are others that have been offered at auction), no other appears to bear a manuscript title incorporating the typically Sassoonian pseudonym of 'Lord Simon Snooks'. Keynes A4.
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