London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1913. First edition, second state. 127pp; frontis. Green publisher's cloth stamped in gilt to front board and spine; top gilt.
Debut book of verse by English Uranian poet Edmund John (1883-1917), here in its second state, with variant readings to several poems but primarily "Salome," changes to which John made following critic James Douglas's singling out of the poem's "necrophilian" transgressions. A schoolmaster, John served briefly in the Artists' Rifles in World War I, but was discharged for health reasons—he had a poor heart—in 1916. He died the following year in Italy, where he had gone with his wife (who by John's admission he had married for her money). Quite uncommon, as are all of John's books.
A few spots of discoloration to boards; light foxing to endpapers; binding a little stretched between signatures. A former owner has also neatly penned the later John poem "The Seven Gifts" to the last three leaves. Very good, lacking a jacket.
D'Arch Smith, Love in earnest, pp. 134-135, 246. Young 2022.
