INTRODUCTIONS
: by Richard Curle, Augustine Birrell, Edmund Gosse, John Drinkwater, E. V. Lucas, A. Edward Newton, R. W. Chapman, David Nichol Smith, Alfred W. Pollard, J. C. Squire to the catalogue of The Ashley Library [1922-1930] collected by Thomas James Wise. Pp. [iv]+72; f'cap. 8vo; blue/grey Michelin papered boards, lettered in black, edges a trifle faded and rubbed, tiny piece chipped from foot of spine; uncut; bookseller's sticker at foot of upper pastedown (offset onto free endpaper), a couple of spots of foxing; William H. Smith, Jr., New York, 1934. First edition, limited to 500 copies. *From the library of Australian book collector, Dr. John Chapman, with his bookplate on upper pastedown. The first ten volumes of the catalogue of Thomas J. Wise's Ashley Library were published from 1922 to 1930. Each contained an introduction by a well-known writer, here published separately for the first time. William Todd, in Various Extraordinary Books [p. 5], first described this as 'A reprint of the laudatory prefaces to the first 10 volumes of The Ashley Library. Issued in December, six months after the Enquiry, apparently with the design of sustaining Wise's reputation at least on this side [i.e. the U.S.A.] of the Atlantic.' In a later footnote to an exhibition catalogue, The Forgeries of William Morris (Supplement), Todd called it 'A malicious reprinting . . . of the laudatory remarks prefacing the ten volumes thus far issued of Wise's 'Ashley Library' Catalogue.' [Todd, (William Morris), p. 7]. Item #157290
Price: $75.00