London, Macmillan & Co., 1909
FIRST EDITION, with 4pp. publisher’s advertisements at end. PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO EDMUND GOSSE IN THE MONTH OF PUBLICATION. 8vo., original olive-green cloth with TH monogram medallion blocked in gilt on upper cover, later green cloth chemise and full green morocco box by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.
| Estimate: | £7,000 - £10,000 |
| Hammer price: | £7,000 |
WITH THREE SIGNED LETTERS BY HARDY TO EDMUND GOSSE, ISAAC LEVINE & HARRY POUNCY tipped-in or inserted loose together with a copy of a letter to Levine:
1) ALS to Gosse, (Athenaeum, [undated but in Collected Letters as 20 May 2011], 2pp. with envelope) commenting “we have taken no place of our own this year, fearing the ‘Coronation Circus’…I am up here by myself”.
2) ALS to Isaac Levine, American composer and pianist, (Max Gate, 7 February 1911, 1pp.) granting him permission “to set the poem ‘To Life’ to music, & another from the same volume or from the…collection of verses entitled ‘Times Laughingstocks’…in which there are several intended for music”.
3) TLS to Mr Pouncy (Max Gate, 21 November 1913, 1pp.) suggesting to Pouncy that his poem “The Rash Bride’ would lend itself to public reading “owing to its peculiar rhythm” and which he feels Pouncy would do justice “as an experienced platform reciter and lecturer”.
Pouncy was a journalist and lecturer who worked for the Dorset Country Chronicle but Frederick Adams, who owned this copy, states, incorrectly, in an inserted pencil note that “this letter is undoubtedly to T. Pouncy of the Dorchester Debating and Dramatic Society”.
The letters are published in Collected Letters, IV, pp. 152, 138, 323.
Provenance: Edmund Gosse – the sale of his library, Sotheby’s 30/07/1928, lot 69; Frederick B. Adams – the sale of his library, Sotheby’s 7/11/01.
Reference: Purdy, pp, 138-150 – noting this as one of 6 recorded inscribed
presentation copies
