Williams, Charles

THREE PLAYS [The Witch, The Chaste Wanton, The Rite of the Passion, Taliessin's Song of Logres, etc.]

Oxford University Press, 1931. First Edition. Hardcover with Dust Jacket. First Printing with the rare dust jacket. A collection of three poetic plays interspersed with an early appearance of four poems from Williams's Arthurian cycle: Taliessin's Song of Logres, Taliessin's Song of Byzantium, Taliessin's Song of the King's Crowning, and Taliessin's Song of the Setting of Galahad in the King's Bed. These early appearances of the Arthurian cycle would be published in complete form in 1938 and were preceded only by the 1930 limited edition, Heroes & Kings. With the very scarce dust jacket: a unique red cellophane dust wrapper with printed paper flaps. While we find no bibliographical evidence and no sales records noting a dust jacket of any kind, the physical evidence suggests the red cellophane is original. The vintage of this brittle material feels contemporary with the 1931 publication date, in our opinion. The cellophane is mounted to the flaps by being pasted betwixt the flaps and a another strip of paper--the paper matches the flaps, both laid paper with identical grain. Furthermore, the foxing on both flaps matches exactly and in several spots overlaps the seam. If it were a different paper added at a later date, we would expect the foxing to manifest at a different gage and intensity. The cellophane is intact across the front portion but chipped and tattered at the back with a large strip missing; the front paper flap is detached from the cellophane. 200pp. 12mo, in Lynton Lamb woodcut paper over boards, backed in black cloth with mounted Lamb woodcut spine label and additional spine label tipped in to the final page, deckled fore and tail edges. Foxing to edges and endpapers extending just a bit into the title page, o/w clean and fresh interior text. Front flap with pice of 6/-net intact [7 blotted out], followed by listings of 6 other Williams titles published by OUP, in whose employ he worked since joining as a warehouse boy in 1908, rising to the role of editor where he served till his death in 1945. The flap also generously notes Williams's first two novels published by Victor Gollancz, War in Heaven and Many Dimensions. VERY GOOD / Fair. Item #514929

Price: $600.00