NEUBURG, Victor Benjamin.

£375 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Swift Wings. Songs in Sussex. First edition, number 197 of 550 copies on antique laid paper, a notably fresh example of Neuburg's second book of pagan poetry published at his Vine Press. This copy was presented as a gift with a charmingly poetic inscription on the front free endpaper by his son, Victor Edward Neuburg (1924-1996). This selection of Neuburg's poetry follows his first work, Lillygay (1920), and was originally intended to be part of a larger collection called Starcraft, which was never published. Neuburg (1883-1940) was an English poet, publisher, and general man-of-letters, and edited "The Poet's Corner" for the Sunday Referee from 1933 onwards. In this role, he awarded prizes for new writing, including to a young Dylan Thomas, whose first book 18 Poems was subsequently sponsored by the publisher of the Sunday Referee. At the Vine Press, which published poetry and prose inspired by theosophy, folklore, and the occult, he likewise gained a reputation for the selfless and generous help he gave to young writers. Upon hearing of Neuburg's death in May 1940 Dylan Thomas wrote that "Vicky encouraged me as no one else has done" (Fuller). In his youth Neuburg shared a close and occasionally sexual association with Aleister Crowley, and was present at Crowley's first "Sex Magick" ritual held in the desert near Algiers in 1909. Although the two split ways from 1914 Crowley was complimentary of Neuburg's poetry, writing in The Spirit of Solitude in 1929 that Neuburg "produ

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.