New addition to the site

Collected Poems by Anna Gordon Keown. Keynes B26

Copy number 92, inscribed by the author

Were there two different English ‘The Old Century and seven more years’ First Editions?

Original First Edition

Edition with red covers

Left: Both books carry identical publishing details. Centre and right: Proof that the same printing process was used for both books can be seen on their ‘Contents’ pages where the letter ‘a’ in ‘page’ is incomplete on its top edge, this is a fault in the printing. The two ‘I’s in ‘I I’ are not level, and there is a fault below the last ‘I’ in ‘I 8 I’. This would be impossible without the original printing process being used to produce both books, something that Keynes did not record in his bibliography.

 American Illustrated Edition with Slipcase

Recently added to the site is this copy of the US, illustrated edition of Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man.

Keynes does not describe this book as a separate publication in his bibliography, but in his description of the English illustrated edition (A30d) he notes that a “limited edition” of 1500 copies with Nicholson’s illustrations was published in New York in 1929 by Coward-McCann. That edition is the book shown here.

Interestingly, as can be seen, the book was issued with a slipcase, something that I have never seen before and as far as I can gather is quite a rare find if still present with the book.

In this particular case the dust jacket is in very poor condition and has since been covered with a protective sleeve to prevent further deterioration.

Below are descriptions and links to the pages on this web site in more detail - Those in green are new

Sassoon Books These are broken down into seven categories which record the books that Siegfried Sassoon wrote himself, comprising of his early poems, autobiographies both fictional and real published in the UK, US and Europe. His poetry published in the UK and the US., and other publications which in this case comprise of his biographies of Meredith, published in the UK and US.

Contributions There are three categories in this section, books in which Siegfried Sassoon has contributed the Introduction or Foreword. Pages covering the six decades in which his poems were published by others, (mainly in anthologies) from 1917 to 1967, and books in which he has contributed other texts, mainly excerpts from his autobiographies.

About Sassoon These are books which contain information about Siegfried Sassoon, written during his lifetime. The books are written by such famous names as Edmund Gosse, David Garnett and Frank Swinnerton. Also included are two books by the renowned bibliographer Geoffrey Keynes. Keynes wrote Sassoons bibliography which has helped enormously in the creation of this web site.

Catalogues An interesting section which covers auction catalogues relating to Siegfried Sassoon’s work. These catalogues give a fascinating look at the library of Siegfried Sassoon when it was sold off after his death and scattered around the world. Sales include Sassoon’s work from the collections of Lady Ottoline Morrell, Stephen Tennant and Max Beerbohm

Modern Day This section includes books that have been written about Siegfried Sassoon or have articles relating to him in the years after his death up to the modern day. These books include the two latest modern biographies written about Sassoon, Jean Moorcroft Wilson’s ‘The Making of a War Poet’ and ‘The Journey from the Trenches’ and Max Egremont’s ‘Siegfried Sassoon - A Biography.’

Periodicals This section covers magazines and periodicals in which Siegfried Sassoon has had his work published or contain stories about him during his lifetime. They include limited runs such as ‘The Owl’ edited by another famous war poet, Robert Graves, and magazines of larger circulation such as the American publication, The Literary Digest,

Music A small but hopefully growing section highlighting any of Siegfried Sassoon’s poems that have been put to music. This selection includes ‘Three Song Pictures’, by Cyril Bradley Rootham, ‘A Childs Prayer’ also by Rootham and ‘Song Cycle’ by Howard Morgan, which includes ‘Noah’, ‘An Old French Poet’, ‘October’, A Poplar and the Moon’ and ‘Goblin Revel.’

His Library A small but fascinating selection of books in my possession which once formed part of Siegfried Sassoon’s own library and were later auctioned off. Also, a small number of books that belonged to Sassoon’s wife, Hester Gatty. These books were auctioned off after Sassoon’s death and have re-entered the market at various times since enabling me to purchase them and add them to this web site.

Sassoon Biography A short, one page biography of Siegfried Sassoon. This biography has been created as a tiny window into the life of the great poet and writer. Elsewhere on this web site will be found more information about his life and his friends which will go to build up a complete picture of the poet, writer, soldier, hero, country gentleman and lover of an English way of life long since past.

A Soldier’s Declaration This is the Hansard report which covers Sasssoon’s Declaration which he wrote in 1917 and sent to a sympathetic MP to be read out in the House of Commons. Sassoon had wanted to do something to shake the establishment at its heart and to speak out about the insincere way in which he thought the war was being pursued by the British Government. It covers the Commons Debate and his Declaration.

Sassoons Art A new page which showcases some of Siegfried Sassoon’s little known paintings and sketches. Siegfried Sassoon enjoyed sketching and painting and often made drawings in the front of books and sent them as gifts to his friends. He also produced watercolour paintings and caricatures of friends and acquaintances.

Keynes A short, one page biography of Sassoon’s bibliographer, Sir Geoffrey Keynes. Geoffrey Keynes (pronounced “Canes”) maintained a passionate interest in English literature all his life. He produced biographies and bibliographies of English writers such as Sir Thomas Browne, John Evelyn, Siegfried Sassoon, John Donne and Jane Austen. His Sassoon bibliography has helped me enormously.

Robert Ross Siegfried Sassoon first met the art expert and literary critic Robert Ross in June 1913, at a party given by Sir Edmund Gosse. Ross, eighteen years older than Sassoon, was a patron of emerging actors, poets and writers and had a significant effect on Sassoon’s work by encouraging him to write poetry critical of the military hierarchy.

Massingham H.W. Massingham was the editor of the Nation, a leading British radical weekly newspaper, between 1907 and 1923. Massingham published a number of Sassoon’s poems in the paper during these years. He was highly enough thought of by Sassoon to be asked his advice before Sassoon went ahead with his protest and was one of the people to whom Sassoon sent a copy of his original statement at the time.

Crosland A page about the first editor to commercially publish Sassoon’s poetry. In the spring of 1909, having had limited success in getting his work published, Siegfried Sassoon was looking for other publications to contact and sent some poems to T.W.H. Crosland the editor of the journal, ‘The Academy’, who was himself a poet and whose work Sassoon respected.

Robert Graves served in the same battalion as Siegfried Sassoon and they became great friends. Graves was also a talented war poet and had ‘helped’ Sassoon during the period of his protest by convincing the army authorities that Sassoon was suffering from shell-shock, and ought to be confined to a hospital rather than be court-martialled for his refusal to fight. Sassoon had not asked for, nor appreciated this intervention.

Poems Every time a poem is mentioned in the text on any page, there will be a link to the full poem on this page. This is by no means a complete list of Sassoon’s poems. Whenever the title of a poem not previously referred to before is added to a page, it will be recorded in full here. This page will grow as more books are added.

Popular Poems This table shows which poems were published in anthologies and how many times during the period approximately 1917 to 1966. A total of 46 books are examined. I know that there may be many other books as yet unseen that also include poems, but 46 is a good start in order to deduce what were considered to be Sassoon’s most popular poems. The list will be updated as other titles are discovered.

Edingthorpe As a child Sassoon spent many a happy holiday with his mother and brothers at the old rectory in Edingthorpe, Norfolk. In 1937 he revisited the village and wrote about his memories in ‘The Old Century and Seven More Years’ [1938], I visited Edingthorpe in 1994 and took the pictures found on this page making reference to their part in Sassoon’s story.

1924 Road Trip In 1924 Siegfried Sassoon was living at 54, Tufton Street, London. On the 6th September he decided to drive to Malvern and visit his great friend, the Neurologist, Henry Head. On this page I have listed all of the places that he passed through on his driving tour, or ‘Road Trip.’ Also, I have included pictures of the hotels that he stayed at overnight or stopped at for food during his journey.

Letters On this page I have put any letters I have relating to Siegfried Sassoon. These letters have either been written by Sassoon, or written by his friends and associates to him or to other people within his circle. At the moment I have a letter written by Sassoon to a lady suggesting she buy a house in Heytesbury. Also a letter written by Sassoon’s friend Robert Ross, another by H W Massingham and one from Geoffrey Keynes.

Heytesbury In 1933 Sassoon bought Heytesbury House, a Georgian mansion surrounded by 90 acres of parkland and 130 acres of woods just outside the village of Heytesbury in Wiltshire. Sassoon was living here when he died and the site is much changed now. This page shows how it was at the time, and what has happened to it since.

Mells Siegfried Sassoon died in 1967 a week before his eighty-first birthday. He had made it known that when he died he wished to be buried in the church yard at Mells, Somerset, close to the grave of Father Ronald Knox. Knox had been a Roman Catholic priest who preached at the church in Mells and who helped Sassoon to convert to Roman Catholicism.

Wellesley College News, May 6th, 1920 - On 28th January, 1920, Siegfried Sassoon arrived in New York. “A lecture tour seemed a way to escape and make money, not only for himself but to help his friends who, imagining him to be rich - because of his name - turned to him often.” (Egremont, Sassoon, 2005, p241.) This is a report in a college newspaper of a lecture Sassoon gave in the United States.

Who Was Who? The people in the Sherston Trilogy were all real, however their real names were not used and Sassoon gave them each a pseudonym. This page gives the pseudonym and the real names of all these people, including a number of place names that feature in the three books. Most of this detection work has been done by others to whom I offer acknowledgment on the page.

Contact Hello, my name is David Gray and I created this web site. Please contact me from this page. I first became interested in Siegfried Sassoon when I picked up an old copy of Memoirs of an Infantry Officer in an old bric-a-brac shop in Peterborough where I live. I find Sassoon incredibly interesting not just for his writing, but also for his amazing bravery, both physically on the battlefield, and morally with regard to his protest.

Links Web sites which may or may not relate to Siegfried Sassoon but could still be of interest to others. These sites include a number which refer directly to Siegfried Sassoon, and others with a military theme relating to the First and Second World Wars. Subjects include the French Resistence in WWII, soldiers who fought in the First World war, and local sites about the city in which I live, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Sassoon Speaks

Sassoon’s Art - when I first created this web site it was with a view to putting online the complete bibliography of Siegfried Sassoon. I believe that I have now done this, however, my interest in the man is such that I have found that I want to continue to add more and more content to the site relating to Sassoon, and additional pages can already be found relating to his home, his childhood, his friends and acquaintances and his art, the list goes on and as long as it does, I will keep adding to the site.

One amazing piece of good fortune that I have recently experienced was to be able to make contact with Robert Pulvertaft, the stepson of George Sassoon, Siegfried’s only son. Robert has been extremely generous in allowing me to showcase on this web site four pieces of Siegfried Sassoon’s art which had never before been seen in the public domain. Click the images on the right

Siegfried Sassoon’s Diaries