Thomas Hardy | Late Lyrics and Earlier, London, 1922, first edition, inscribed by the author to Sassoon

Thomas Hardy

Late Lyrics and Earlier. London: Macmillan, 1922

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO SIEGFRIED SASSOON ("(For Siegfried Sassoon) Thomas Hardy"), 8vo, ownership inscription on front pastedown ("Siegfried Sassoon May 24^th 1922"), 20 LINES OF MANUSCRIPT NOTES IN INK BY SASSOON ON HARDY'S "CONDENSED TALES" ON FINAL ENDPAPER, some other markings and underlinings in the text, photograph of the elderly Hardy attached to front endpaper, cutting of review affixed to lower paste-down, original olive-green cloth, upper cover blocked in gold with TH monogram medallion, lacking dust-jacket, endleaves slightly browned at extremities

A FINE ASSOCIATION COPY. It was while Hardy was preparing this volume for publication that his wife Florence "came upon him one day talking to himself about the iniquities of critics, until he suddenly burst out with: 'I wrote my poems for men like Siegfried Sassoon' "(Millgate). In a letter of May 1917, written to Sassoon as the younger poet recovered in hospital from his wounds, Hardy wrote: "I don't know how I should stand the suspense of this evil time if it were not for the sustaining power of poetry". In October 1919, Sassoon visited Max Gate for the weekend, and presented to Hardy the "Poet's Tribute", a handsomely bound volume in which forty-three poets, including Bridges, Kipling, Yeats, Graves, Sassoon himself and D.H. Lawrence, had each inscribed in Hardy's honour a copy of one of their poems. "Hardy was much touched by the gesture and set himself the task of thanking personally, and distinctively, each of the poets involved" (Millgate). A note in pencil by Frederick Adams records that Sassoon "apparently received this 24 May 1922 and on 1 June wrote TH that he was trying to review the book and finding it difficult to express his admiration coherently. He never did, abandoning the task the same day", though Walter de la Mare's review is tipped to the rear endpaper. 

PROVENANCE

Siegfried Sassoon, the sale of his library, Christie's, 4 June 1974, lot 127; sale of The Library of Frederick B. Adams, Jr. Part II: Thomas Hardy, Sotheby's London, 7 November 2001, lot 583

LITERATURE

Purdy, pp. 214-227