THE WILD BODY - A Soldier of Humour and Other Stories (First edition - first state binding)

Wyndham Lewis

Verlag: Chatto & Windus, London, 1927

First impression of the true first edition, published in 1927. This copy is in the first state orange cloth gilt binding (one of 1,500 copies thus). The book was re-issued in The Centaur Library later the same year in red boards with black titles. ***Near fine in orange cloth-covered boards with gilt tiles to the spine. The gilt is still nice and bright. The boards have some marks and wear commensurate with handling over the last 95 years, but are generally bright and clean. Edges just slightly rubbed. The spine colour is slightly faded. Head and tail of spine and corner tips slightly creased. No tears to the fragile cloth covering. The top edge of the page block is stained orange by the publisher to match the boards and is quite clean. No foxing to the page block edges. There is a very slight reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally the book is also near fine, with no inscriptions or annotations. No foxing or offsetting - the pages are clean. No creases or tears. No dustwrapper. ***200mm x130mm. 295 pages plus a four-page Publisher's Catalogue at the back of the book. ***'"The Wild Body" is a series of short stories by Wyndham Lewis that appeared in English and American publications between 1917 and 1922. Nine short stories comprise a series that follows the narrator Ker-Orr (the projected persona of Lewis himself) in his adventures around Brittany. The first of the series, A Soldier of Good Humour, first appeared in the December 1917 and January 1918 editions of American Literary publication The Little Review. Other stories in the collection are: Beau Sejour, The Cornac and His Wife, The Death of the Ankou, Franciscan Adventures, Brotcotnaz, Inferior Religions and The Meaning of the Wild Body. A later story, Sigismund, was written in 1922 and appeared in Arts and Letters. The final story is You Broke My Dream also written in 1922. The collected short stories were published in a single edition by Chatto & Windus of London in 1927, and Harcourt Brace of New York in 1928.' ***'Wyndham Lewis helped pioneer Vorticism, a modernist movement in British art and poetry in the early 20th century and founded the Rebel Art Centre in 1914. Many British artists that had allied themselves with Lewis and the vortices movement attended the centre which was opposed to the Italian futurists movement. American literary agitator Ezra Pound also aligned himself to Lewis's cause. Lewis objected to the futurist celebration of the machine age and was repelled by vague and indistinct form preferring structural clarity which is to be found in the vivid character descriptions, powerful metaphors and crystal-clear imagery of The Wild Body. He hoped Vorticism would help depict rapidly changing social constructs of modern life. Aligned with Ezra Pound, Lewis was editor, designer and author of the art manifesto magazine Blast that was at the centre of the Vorticism movement. His aim along with the likes of Pound, James Joyce and T. S. Eliot was to stand for a daring and original engagement of art and literature. "The Wild Body" represents an evolution of the writing ability of Wyndham Lewis and a literary crystallising of the vorticist movement in modernist literature depicting the "itinerant acrobats and assorted eccentrics he encountered during his travels in Brittany" in the opening decades of the 20th century and decanting the heady draught of modernism at its zenith moment.' (Wiki) ***A first impression of the true first edition of "The Wild Body" by Vorticist writer Wyndham Lewis. A nicely preserved copy of this pre-war first edition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 8751

Bibliografische Details

Titel: THE WILD BODY - A Soldier of Humour and ...
Verlag: Chatto & Windus, London
Erscheinungsdatum: 1927
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Near Fine
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: No Jacket
Auflage: First Edition