MASEFIELD, John.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Complete Set of Garden City Press Publications. Limited editions, each one of 200 copies. The books were printed by the printing firm established in 1903 by Aneurin Williams (1859-1924), the Liberal politician, and others. This set is included by Ransom in Private Presses and Their Books, although the press was more of a commercial enterprise (Ransom, p. 289). The firm would later print books for the Hogarth Press.The bookplate appears to be that of the Canadian bookplate collector and designer, Stanley Harrod (1881-1954).In 1915 Masefield invited subscribers for a set of four volumes "strictly limited to 200 sets". He later wrote to Frank Sidgwick noting publication as a private venture: "I am making no arrangements for a trade sale and giving no reductions, as the books are going off very well privately, like W. S.'s sonnets, among my private friends" (Errington, p. 133).Masefield's biographer notes that, early in the First World War, "horror at the evil of war had intensified [Masefield's] yearnings for beauty, and most of the sonnets on the theme of beauty... were written at this time" (Babington Smith, p. 121). Sonnets and Poems, comprising the first edition of this title, contains 47 verses.The two plays, "The Locked Chest" and "The Sweeps of Ninety-Eight" were written in 1906 and 1905 respectively, this is their first appearance in print. The first is noted as "from a Tale in the Laxdaelasaga" and reveals the influence of William Morris on Masefield.Good Friday, a play

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