Charles Sorley | Marlborough and Other Poems, Cambridge, 1916, first edition, letters from Sorley's mother laid in

Charles Sorley

Marlborough and Other Poems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916

FIRST EDITION, 8vo, 4 letters from Sorley's mother laid in, original boards, lacking dust-jacket, browning to front free endpaper, a very good copy

Sorley was an officer from 1914 until he was killed in action on October 13, 1915, aged 20. Four poignant letters from Sorley's mother, Janetta C. Sorley (granddaughter of the economist Adam Smith) from 1915-16 are laid-in, the earliest written two weeks after her son's death at the Battle of Loos: "Is it not strange that we could never see his future clear & defined?, but now it is assured . . . It is a great deal to have had in this life even, a perfect human experience through Charlie. He was never anything but a spring of joy and strength to us all."

The recipient of these letters was the Sanskrit and Pali scholar Mary Ridding. Janetta explains in the second letter that her husband (the philosopher Willam Sorley) has undertaken a reprint of their son's poems on account of a new poem (“XXVIII”) having been sent to them by a friend of Charlie's, and that "he had a number of copies of the poem struck off to send to our friends who have the first edition" —this rare offprint is loosely inserted in the present volume. In Goodbye to All That, Robert Graves ranked Sorley as "one of the three poets of importance killed during the war", alongside Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen.