DOWSON, Ernest. The Poems of Ernest Dowson. With a memoir by Arthur Symons, four illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, and a portrait by William Rothenstein. 2nd edn. John Lane, The Bodley Head. 1906
Half title, front., titlepage in red & black, plates, 2pp ads. Partially uncut in orig. light green cloth, blocked in gilt design by Beardsley, spine lettered in gilt; sl. dulled, else a nice bright copy. Ink inscriptions on leading f.e.p. 'Reginald C Carrington, Oxford 1907', and a short inscription in Latin. t.e.g.
¶Ernest Dowson, 1867-1900, poet, novelist, and short-story writer whose work influenced many later authors. He was well-established with the literary set of London in the late 1880s and 1890s, and was a member of the Rhymers' Club along with W.B. Yeats, Lord Alfred Douglas, Arthur Symons, Richard Le Gallienne, and sometimes Oscar Wilde. Elkin Mathews and John Lane published the Club's first collections of poetry - including work by Dowson - in 1892 and 1894. After a series of family tragedies in the mid-1890s, his health began to rapidly decline, and he died at the age of 32. His poem Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae (pp.27-28 of this volume) provided Margaret Mitchell with the famous title of her most popular work Gone with the Wind.
Stock #85302
£120
46, Great Russell Street - (opp. British Museum) - Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3PA
