Henry - Music. Poems By Nancy Cunard, Richard Aldington, Walter Lowenfels, Samuel Beckett, Harold Acton by CROWDER, HENRY [Beckett, Samuel, et al] - 1930

Paris: Hours Press, 1930. (33 cm x 25 cm). Pictorial boards featuring a photomontage by Man Ray. Extremities a bit worn and tanned, spine intact but slightly frayed, a few thin, stray marks of offsetting to boards, faint tidemark around crown of spine extending into the upper spine corner of the lower board, somewhat later bookplate on front pastedown, along with ownership inscription, with the name only repeated on title, sewing of textblock slack resulting in a couple of leaves being loose, a few faint, small tape shadows on endsheets from an earlier, crude (and now absent) plastic wrapper, withal, a blemished but not wholly disagreeable copy of an exceedingly fragile and uncommon book. First and only edition in original format. One of one hundred copies, signed by Henry Crowder. This copy is not numbered, and it would appear the edition also included out-of-series press copies. This copy is inscribed by Nancy Cunard, the publisher, on the front free endsheet: "For Samuel Putnam from Nancy Cunard Paris. 1932." Samuel Putnam (1892-1950) was among the ablest of the American expatriates of the time, serving as chief editor of THE NEW REVIEW (5 Numbers 1931-2), and of the 1931 anthology, EUROPEAN CARAVAN. His translation of DON QUIXOTE is still respected as the first authoritative translation into modern English. This collection features settings by Henry Crowder, Cunard's lover and parnter in the Hours Press, to poems by Cunard, Richard Aldington, Harold Acton, Walter Lowenfels, and Samuel Beckett ("From the Only Poet to a Shining Whore"). Fragile construction, time and circumstance have taken a toll on what was already a small edition, and copies in any condition are indeed uncommon. . Limited First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. Small Folio.