A Draft of XXX Cantos.
by POUND, Ezra
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
London, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Paris: Hours Press,, 1930. The blossoms of the apricot / blow from the east to the west, / And I have tried to keep them from falling First edition, first impression, number 31 of 200 copies printed on Canson-Montgolfier soleil velin paper, from a total edition of 212 copies; there were also 10 signed copies on Texas Mountain paper, and 2 copies on vellum. This publication marks the first appearance of the poems that would make up Pound's Cantos, his magnum opus. When Cyril Connolly wrote The Modern Movement in 1965, he selected XXX Cantos as "the best work in Pound's 'poem of some length'". Connolly remarks that "one enters them like a sunlit church with a service going in a dark corner and suddenly the music pierces... A moment later all is muttering and mumbling". The Hours Press was owned and operated by Nancy Cunard, heiress to the Cunard shipping fortune. She first met Pound in 1915, when he approached her mother for support for Joyce and Wyndham Lewis. Cunard was able to fulfil an ambition to learn hand-printing when William Bird, proprietor of Three Mountains Press, agreed to sell her his press and types for £300. By late 1928, she had set herself up at Reanville, 50 miles from Paris, intending to publish experimental literature, with an emphasis on poetry: Pound's developing cantos suited her aims perfectly. Octavo. Original grey buckram, spine and front cover lettered in red. Woodcut initial letters by Dorothy Shakespear. Bookplate of South African industrialist Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (1880-1957) and ink shelfmark to front pastedown. Spine slightly toned and faded, a few small marks to cloth, contents almost entirely unopened: a near-fine copy. Gallup A31a; Connolly 66.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Peter Harrington (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 164194
- Title
- A Draft of XXX Cantos.
- Author
- POUND, Ezra
- Book Condition
- Used
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Place of Publication
- Paris: Hours Press,
- Date Published
- 1930
Terms of Sale
Peter Harrington
All major credit cards are accepted. Both UK pounds and US dollars (exchange rate to be agreed) accepted. Books may be returned within 14 days of receipt for any reason, please notify first of returned goods.
About the Seller
Peter Harrington
Biblio member since 2006
London
About Peter Harrington
Since its establishment, Peter Harrington has specialised in sourcing, selling and buying the finest quality original first editions, signed, rare and antiquarian books, fine bindings and library sets. Peter Harrington first began selling rare books from the Chelsea Antiques Market on London's King's Road. For the past twenty years the business has been run by Pom Harrington, Peter's son.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Vellum
- Vellum is a sheet of specialty prepared skin of lamb, calf, or goat kid used for binding a book or for printing and writing. ...
- Buckram
- A plain weave fabric normally made from cotton or linen which is stiffened with starch or other chemicals to cover the book...