BLUNDEN, Edmund.

£2,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Poems. 1913 and 1914. First edition of the poet's first work, inscribed by the author on the title page, "With Edmund Blunden's regards: 16 March 1920". The book belonged to Albert Sydney Haydn Machin, one of Blunden's school friends at Christ's Hospital, who died in 1918 from tuberculosis, two years before Blunden's inscription.Machin's ownership inscription is on the title page, with the note "Coleridge 'A'", the name of the school house both Blunden and Machin belonged to. The same hand has noted on the original wrapper, "Easter Term 1915" and "Senior Grecian, 1914-15" below Blunden's name. Blunden was the Senior Grecian (head student) at Christ's Hospital.Machin is mentioned frequently in Blunden's correspondence with Hector Buck, another school friend. Shortly after leaving school, Blunden asked "What news of … Machin, or anybody whose prevailing trouble was a Broad Sense of Umour?" and in 1964 remembers him: "what I find hard to keep clear is who departed from us ages ago, still at times looking in very amiably" (Correspondence, p. 4, 198). Machin enlisted in 1917, but was discharged three months later on health grounds.Machin's parents perhaps had this copy rebound shortly after their son's death, Blunden then adding the inscription at their request.Kirkpatrick records that 100 copies were published and notes that it was issued simultaneously with Poems Translated from the French.

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