SASSOON, Siegfried. The War Poems. London: William Heinemann, 1919. 8°. Half title. Original red cloth, printed labels designed by William Nicholson on upper cover and spine, orange dust-jacket (backstrip and edges discoloured, some fraying at head and foot of backstrip and corners). FIRST EDITION. A printed note, on the verso of Barbusse’s prefatory extract from “Le Feu”, states: “Of these 64 poems, 12 are now published for the first time. The remainder are selected from two previous volumes.” With 2 one-page autograph letters from Siegfried Sassoon to “Dear C.H.W.” [?C.H. Warren], on paper headed “Heytesbury House, Wiltshire", dated 25 October 1938 and 17 February 1940 respectively, the first stating, “… I think The Old Century will suit your taste. It is’nt[sic] a book that needs to be dissected & explained. It is either a ‘spell-binder’ or nothing. Reviewers … have tried to treat it as a literal autobiography, failing to understand that it is poetry diffused into prose. It is deliberately idealized memory, & was written to give pleasure, & to demonstrate that prose can still be written for the ear as well as for the eye …”; the second (1940), “… Did I send you my Rhymed Ruminations which G. Keynes produced in a 75 copies edition last autumn? I meant to do so, but may have forgotten (in the outbreak of pandaemonium caused by the unspeakable rascals who have destroyed decent Germany till further notice.) …”