Corrected (carbon?) typescript of his essay "William Barnes.''

HARDY, THOMAS

Price: 10000.00 USD

Corrected (carbon?) typescript of his essay entitled "William Barnes.'' 5pp., 4to, pinned together with a brass clip. With corrections, revisions and additions in Hardy's hand throughout. First published as the preface to The English Poets, edited by Thomas Humphry Ward, Vol. V (Browning to Rupert Brooke), London, 1918, pp. [174]-176. According to Purdy (pp. 319-20), this "biographical summary and critical introduction'' preceded the "10 selections from Barnes's poetry'' in Ward's anthology. "Hardy was asked to undertake the work by Humphry Ward in October 1916 and dispatched his MS. on 24 November. The volume was delayed by the First World War, and it was June 1917 when Hardy received his proof and November 1918 before the book was published. This is the fourth and last of Hardy's notes on Barnes and his poetry . . . and he warned Ward at the outset, 'I fear that what I would have to say would not be much more than a paraphrase of what I have said about him elsewhere in past years. This is almost inevitable.' The critical introduction repeats a few lines and phrases from the preface to Select Poems of William Barnes (1908), and pages from the text were used as printer's copy.'' The first page of the typescript contains textual additions in ink in an unknown hand (Ward's?), and there are several annotations and markings in pencil, indicating that these sheets may also have been used as printer's copy. From a collection of papers submitted by Hardy to his publishers, Macmillan & Co., in case they should be needed for inclusion in a future volume of his uncollected prose pieces. A bit soiled and worn. In a half-morocco slipcase. Accompanied by a copy of the Sotheby's (London) Catalogue of Printed Books and Manuscripts Donated for Sale on Behalf of the Friends of the National Libraries, for the auction held at their premises on 9 June 1981. The present typescript was part of Lot 89 which describes a "Collection of letters, typescripts and printed material intended by Hardy to supplement the existing bibliography of his works. . . ."