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26 ELIOT, T. S. Poems 1909–1925. London: Faber & Gwyer, 1925 [1926] His first retrospective collection, and his first signed limited edition First edition, copy number 3 of 85 copies signed by the author, printed on handmade paper and specially bound. This was Eliot’s first signed limited edition and his first retrospective collection. Ordinary copies were published on 23 November 1925, with the signed copies published 6 January 1926 at 25 s. The famous dedication to The Waste Land (“For Ezra Pound, il miglior fabbro”), originally inscribed by Eliot in the presentation copy he gave Pound, is here printed for the first time. Demy octavo. Original white linen bevelled boards, titles in gilt direct to spine, boards panelled in blind, edges untrimmed. Very mild toning to spine panel, minimal scuffs to two corners, but an exquisite copy, fresh and near fine. ¶ Gallup A8b. £12,500 [154064] 27 FAULKNER, William . The Marble Faun. Boston: The Four Seas Company, 1924 Faulkner’s first book, inscribed twice to the man who inspired Dink Quistenberry’s name First edition, sole printing, presentation copy of Faulkner’s first book, inscribed on the front free endpaper, “To Dink
Cearley from Bill Faulkner” and signed and dated 31 December 1924 on the title page. Fittingly for this debut collection of juvenile poems (described in the Preface as being “drenched in sunlight and colour as is the land in which they were written, the land which gave birth and sustenance to their author”), the recipient of this rare presentation copy was a young friend from Oxford, Mississippi. C. L. (“Dink”) Cearley was in 1924 the 19-year-old son of Abb W. Cearley (69 years old, married at age 36) and Mollie Cearley. Abb was the jailor in Oxford, Mississippi, and would probably have been elected to that position. Abb and Mollie were both born in Mississippi, as were all four of their parents. The Cearley family (including several siblings) lived on the premises of the jail. In 1931 there is a record of a minor ($2) payment to a Mr Woodward “in the Dink Cearley Case” and there are occasional references to Cearley Service Station, but otherwise the family seems to have lived quietly. The fact that Faulkner uses the familiar form of his own forename suggests that he was on easy terms with the younger Dink. Faulkner employed his unusual forename for the character Dink Quistenberry in The Town , who marries into the Snopes family and runs the Jefferson (formerly Snopes) Hotel. The Marble Faun is the author’s first book, of which only 500 of the projected 1,000 copies were printed and some 300 of those were later pulped. The official publication date was, after some delay, fixed as 15 December 1924 and the earliest dated presentation copies were signed on the 19th. Octavo. Original mottled green boards, white paper title labels to front board and spine printed in green. With dust jacket. Housed in a black
INEXHAUSTIBLE LIFE
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