Ionica: [poems] [WITH] Ionica II: [more poems]

William Johnson CORY

Beschreibung

2 vols, the first published by Smith, Elder, London, 1858, in contemporary red morocco by E. Riley & Son, lettered in gilt on spine "IONICA / PART / I / 1858", all edges gilt; the second, printed at the University Press, Cambridge, 1877, in contemporary red morocco to match, by Johanna Birkenruth, lettered in gilt on spine "IONICA / PART / II. / 1877.", all edges gilt. Spine of the first rubbed and faded, edges of covers slightly rubbed, some spotting of prelims, pp. 91-2 slightly nicked at fore-edge; upper cover of the second slightly rubbed at top edge. The first comprises the primary collection of William Johnson Cory (né Johnson, 1823-1892), schoolmaster, scholar and poet, published anonymously, and prints at p. 7 his best-known poem, a version of Callimachus, "They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead"; inscribed, "Alfred Lambert from Charles David Williamson Oct 9. 1887", it bears a few marginal pencillings. In the text of the second are six manuscript alterations, four in ink (apparently in the author's hand - adding to Carter's named three, "brink" for "bank", p. [5]), two in pencil; inscribed on the blank facing the title-page are 16 lines of "Dream-life", printed in (and copied from?) Viscount Esher's Ionicus (1924). In a letter to the future Lord Esher, 13 November 1877, the author wrote, "I sent to the Cambridge University Press this week sundry rhymes, enough to fill forty-eight pages exactly; not published, but just to 'give' away for a shilling a copy privately, as I was tired of copying out, and at the same time I could never tell that there might not be a few, say ten pupils, who might like to see certain things." "This book [Ionica II] is a rare bibliographical curiosity," wrote A.C. Benson. "It has neither title-page nor index; it bears no author's name; and it is printed without punctuation, on a theory of the author's, spaces being left, instead of stops, to indicate pauses." Charles David Robertson Williamson (1853-1943) - known as "Chat" (for Chatterbox) - was a favourite pupil of the author's at Eton. To Johnson/Cory's dismay he converted to Catholicism at the age of 20 and became a Catholic priest, finally in his native Perthshire. The binding by Johanna Birkenruth (1853-1929) is attractively fresh. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 30M100131

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Ionica: [poems] [WITH] Ionica II: [more ...

Einband: Hardcover

Zustand: Very Good

Signiert: Inscribed by Author(s)

Auflage: 1st Edition