A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems.

Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire: printed at The Alcuin Press, published by The Richards Press Limited, London,, 1929. In the scarce publisher's single-volume binding First Alcuin Press edition, number 159 of 325 copies, this one of a handful issued in the publisher's deluxe single-volume binding; almost all copies were issued in two cloth-backed volumes. Housman refused the publisher Herbert Patrick Reginald Finberg's request to issue a deluxe version in a single leather-bound volume, writing to him on 1 February 1929: "Unless I change my mind, A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems will not be published in one volume during my lifetime" (Housman, pp. 109-10). Nonetheless Finberg persevered in secret and, according to Naiditch, at least four copies were thus bound. This was the first edition comprising what were then Housman's complete published works (More Poems being published only after his death in 1936). Two volumes in 1, octavo. Original light brown morocco, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering in compartments, top edge gilt. Text printed in red and black. Some discolouration and minor marks to covers, contents clean and fresh. A very good copy indeed. A. E. Housman, The Letters of A. E. Housman, Vol. II, 2007.