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of this anti-Semitic portrait until 1955, when Samuel Behrman informed him of the fact. His response was nonplussed: “I am not Jewish. I cannot claim that. But then, you know, he was crazy. He greatly admired Mussolini. All that Fascist business!” (ibid.). Poet’s Corner was first published in 1904; this is the first edition to include John Rothenstein’s introduction, and four additional colour illustrations first published in Rossetti and His Circle (1922). Small octavo. Original illustrated grey boards, spine lettered in black on white ground, front cover lettered in red, imprint on rear in black and white. Black and white frontispiece and vignettes, 24 full-page colour illustrations. Front free endpaper partially excised, clipping mounted onto a piece of stiff card stationary with Royal Air Force insignia on verso and tipped onto remaining endpaper stub. Joints just splitting with loss to centre of spine, spine ends a little chipped, corners worn, edges a little rubbed, offsetting to front free endpaper, gutter cracked but firm to pp. 16-17. A firm copy in good condition, internally fresh. ¶ N. John Hall, ed., Max Beerbohm Caricatures , 1997. £675 [144660] 98 PROKOSCH, Frederic. Temple Song; [together with] Island Song. Stuttgart & Hong Kong: 1954 & 1956 Presentation copies to fellow modernist poet First editions, each one of 44 copies (letter “d” and “g” respectively), presentation copies to the French novelist and poet Raymond Queneau, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper of each volume, respectively: “Joyeaux Noël pour Raymond Queneau Frederic Prokosch”, and “For Raymond Queneau with my best wishes Frederic Prokosch Christmas 1956”. In the early 1930s Prokosch began producing small, hand- printed editions of his own writings, as well as work by authors he admired, and continued the practice until 1960. Many he sent to authors as Christmas presents. Queneau (1903–1976) was influenced by Prokosch, and founded the Modernist poetry group
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96 PLATH, Sylvia, & Ted Hughes. Original inscribed photograph of Ted and Frieda Hughes. [August 1960] An original photograph of Hughes taken by Plath, showing him sitting with his daughter Frieda, inscribed by Plath on the verso, “Frieda Rebecca & father (4 months old)”. This is an intimate memento from Plath’s first years of motherhood; Frieda Rebecca Hughes was born on 1 April 1960, the same year as Plath’s first collection of poetry, The Colossus , was published. Any material inscribed in Plath’s hand, let alone something of such personal significance, is rare in commerce. Original photograph (60 × 60 mm). In very good condition. £1,250 [152121] 97 POUND, Ezra (his copy) – BEERBOHM, Max. The Poet’s Corner. London & New York: The King Penguin Books, 1943 First Penguin edition, sole impression, Ezra Pound’s copy with his pencil ownership initials on the front pastedown, and a clipped and tipped-in book review with a portrait of Baudelaire dated in Pound’s hand, “Times April 1946”, in red crayon. Pound and Beerbohm were neighbours in Rapallo from 1924, occasionally dining, swimming, and playing tennis together. Glimpsing Pound for the first time in London in 1915, Beerbohm remarked that he was a “good subject for a caricature” (quoted in Hall), and executed three caricatures, in 1914, 1932, and 1934. When Pound moved into Beerbohm’s Rapallo neighbourhood in 1924, the two became better acquainted. Despite Beerbohm’s 1924 letter to Phyllis Bottome suggesting that “Pound seems out of place here. . . could you not persuade him to return to a country in which there is much more room?” (ibid.), the two were close enough that in 1937, Pound was considering writing an autobiography of Beerbohm, if offered the right price by a publisher; however, no biography emerged. Pound penned his own early caricature of Beerbohm as “Brennbaum” in the long poem Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920). Beerbohm apparently had no knowledge
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