Verses

Alderney: Privately Printed for the Author, 1962. Full Description:

WHITE, T.H.. Verses. Alderney: Privately Printed for the Author, at the Shenval Press, 1962.

Limited edition, signed by the author. Limited edition of 100, this being number 20, dedicated to close friend Michael Howard, signed as Tim White, with a symbol of a heart with an arrow through in blue ink. Octavo (9 x 6 inches; 230 x 153 mm). 43, [5, blank] pp. In the original glassine.

Quarter vellum over orange cloth. Boards ruled in gilt. The author's initials in gilt as a central device on front board. Spine lettered in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Glassine chipped. Overall about fine.

"T. H. White was an English novelist, social historian, and satirist who was best known for his brilliant adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory's 15th-century romance, Morte Darthur, into a quartet of novels called The Once and Future King." (Brittanica).

Verses is the last of White's books published in his lifetime. It contains 36 poems, including one to Julie Andrews, and one to Richard Burton. The dedicatee, Michael Howard was responsible for the photographic portrait of TH White on the cover of the bibliography by Sylvia Townsend Warner, as will as a few other images throughout the bibliography. In her acknowledgements she thanks Michael Howard "for encouraging me to undertake this book, providing much material for it, preparing the illustrations and allowing me to read the intimate diaries which White left to his guardianship."

HBS 69450.

$1,000.