Shakespeare, William (Shakespeare Head Press) ~ Shakespeare’s Sonnets

FIRST EDITION THUS : The Shakespeare Head Press and Basil Blackwell, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Oxford : 1921

The FIRST EDITION THUS published by The Shakespeare Head Press and Basil Blackwell, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Oxford in 1921. Foolscap 8vo., cream cloth-backed paste paper boards, with a decorative design in blue and printed labels to upper cover and spine; outer edges untrimmed; with typographic head and tail pieces throughout; The BOOK is in Very Good++ condition with light toning and offsetting to the half title; a few light spots and marks but generally clean throughout, some light toning and soiling to the outer edges of boards with rubbing to extremities and bumped to the spine tips; spine label a little toned with one small scuff to the spine. The book is protected in a removable Mylar cover. First edition thus of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, one of 410 copies issued, of which this copy is no. '101'. Printed by A. H. Bullen, founder of the press (who also provides a note), the text was published posthumously, after he passed away in 1920. A pencil note present here to the lower title page identifies ‘The Dark Lady’ (who appears in Shakespeare’s sonnets) as ‘Elizabeth Bassano’. With the pencil name of the historian A. L. Rowse and the date of 5.11.81, the hand is certainly similar, although the attribution is potentially dubious given that the lady in question is Emilia Bassano - an unlikely mistake for Rowse, who was specifically a scholar of the Elizabethan period. Emilia Bassano was the first woman in England to assert herself as a professional poet. The Forward is here provided by H.F.B Brett-Smith, who begins with a consideration of Bullen’s scholarship, and the work of the press itself, which he calls “no negligible contribution to the cause of good scholarship and good printing in England”. “Bullen had the modesty of the true scholar”, he continues, “the aesthetic value of his books to all lovers of English literature is unimpaired”. An attractive copy.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good++