Siegfried Sassoon Bibliography

Siegfried Sassoon

The Illustrated Bibliography - A resource for book collectors, dealers, students and anyone with an interest in the great man

“Time’s but a golden wind that shakes the grass...” Absolution 1915

You are looking at the only web site that records the complete bibliography of the famous First World War soldier, poet and writer, Siegfried Sassoon. Illustrated here are all the books and pamphlets published by Sassoon in his lifetime; any contribution he has made to other books such as introductions and forewords, and any of his work published by others in his lifetime such as the inclusion of his poems or other work in anthologies etc.

All books illustrated are from my own collection and are listed in order of the date they were published. I have also included on the site books in which people have written about Sassoon in his lifetime and also modern books written about him after his death, in particular biographies which may be of interest to those wishing to find out more about him.


	Keynes Bibliographer and close friend of Siegfried Sassoon, Geoffrey Keynes, wrote a bibliography of Sassoon’s work which was published by Rupert Hart-Davis in 1962. This is a wonderful book but unfortunately is incomplete. Siegfried Sassoon was a complex character, full of contradictions and although he had always wanted to be a famous writer, when Keynes suggested he write his bibliography Sassoon only grudgingly agreed and then took a devilish delight in holding back information and being generally unhelpful throughout the exercise. Keynes had Sassoon’s own library from which to carry out his research and he also had a number of his own books to collate. However, many books, particularly anthologies, went unrecorded and this web site brings more of them together for the first time. I have used Keynes own numbering system but where books are not in his bibliography I have noted that they were Not Collated. Some other books are not covered in depth by Keynes but merely mentioned in the larger descriptions of other more well-known titles. Where this is the case I have noted that they were Mentioned.


	The Bookshelf Click the titles below to find out more about Siegfried Sassoon’s writing




	Siegfried Sassoon at Garsington in the mid 1920s


	* Recent Additions to the Listings *

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Left: Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: 1931

This is the Tauchnitz Edition, Vol 4976, of Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and can be found on the Memoirs EU page. These paperback books, of which there were many titles, were published in Leipzig and were ‘Not to be introduced into the British Empire and U.S.A.’ This title was published in 1931, the same year as its partner volume, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Vol 4975.

Life and Letters To-Day

Right: Life and Letters To-Day: 1939

The following books have just been added (latest in red), none were collated by Keynes unless noted

Life and Letters To-Day: 1939
Modern Verse 1900-1950: 1962
The Fox-Hunter’s Bedside Book: 1949
To-Day Magazine: (Keynes C108) November 1919
A Book of Verse Chosen for Students at Home and Abroad: 1926
Palgrave’s Golden Treasury with Additional Poems: 1933
Best Hunting Stories: 1954
Flash Point: 1966
Valour and Vision - Poems of the War: 1920
The Poetry Review Vol. LVIII: Winter 1967

The Fox Hunter Bedside Book

The Fox-Hunter’s Bedside Book: 1949 Contributions

Recent additions to the site

Valour and Vision: 1920 Contributions	To-Day: November 1919 Periodicals	Modern Verse: 1962 Contributions

Valour and Vision: (above) This collection of poems was published in 1920 to help raise funds for the Incorporated Soldiers and Sailors Help Society.

The book was arranged to present a series of poems for each year of the First World War which reflected the mood and events that were relevant to that year from 1914 to 1918. Rather strangely, the collection, which was compiled by Jacqueline T. Trotter, features just one poem by Sassoon, ‘Dreamers,’ in the section for the year 1917. In her Prefatory Note she states for 1917 that many of the ‘soldier poets’ had “sung their last song.”

“Failure after failure had made itself felt, the romance of war is gone, and there only remains the daily roll of missing and killed and the crowded hospitals; the thought of a decisive victory is far from us. This theme runs through most of the poems of the period.”

To-Day:1919 (above) Contains an interesting poem about war written a year after it had ended.

To Leonide Massine in “Cleopatra”

O beauty doomed and perfect for an hour,

Leaping along the verge of death and night,

You show me dauntless youth that went to fight

Four long years past, discovering pride and power.

You die but in our dreams, who watch you fall

Knowing that to-morrow you will dance again.

But not to ebbing music were they slain

Who sleep in ruined graves, beyond recall;

Who, following phantom glory, friend and foe,

Into the darkness that was war must go;

Blind; banished from desire.

O mortal heart

Be still; you have drained the cup; you have played

your part.

Bibliotheca Bibliographici

Also to be found on this web site is this large and impressive book which records the library of Siegfried Sassoon’s bibliographer, Geoffrey Keynes.

The Limited Edition of 500 copies was published by The Trianon Press in 1964 and covers books from many other writers beside Sassoon including Rupert Brooke, William Blake, John Donne, John Maynard Keynes, William Shakespeare and John Ruskin.

The book lists many very rare Sassoon books, limited editions, signed copies and presentation copies that were in Keynes’ own private collection. There are also a number of manuscripts and letters listed.

Please click the image for more information about Geoffrey Keynes.

“Siegfried’s Journal” This is the Newsletter of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship. The Fellowship’s web site can be accessed here: www.sassoonfellowship.org

The Journal contains much of interest for those who want to learn more about Siegfried Sassoon and I would recommend anyone to go to the web site and join this very interesting organisation.

(Click image to enlarge)


	The books that illustrate these pages come from my own collection and as will be seen, there are many missing. Where I do not have an example of the book being listed, I have inserted a picture from a selection of those that have illustrated Siegfried Sassoon’s books as a placeholder, if I subsequently obtain a copy of a missing book, I will update the page with its picture.

This web site consists of twelve main sections, or headings which can be accessed from the main navigation bar, top left of each page, or the links below:

Sassoon Books These are further broken down into seven categories which record the books that Siegfried Sassoon wrote himself comprising of his autobiographies, both fictional and real, his poetry and also any other subjects.

Contributions There are three categories in this section, books in which Siegfried Sassoon has contributed the Introduction or Foreword, three web pages of books in which he has poems published (mainly anthologies), and books in which he has contributed other texts.

About Sassoon These are books which contain information about Siegfried Sassoon, written during his lifetime.

Catalogues An interesting section which covers auction catalogues relating to Siegfried Sassoon’s work.

Modern Day This section is self explanatory, it 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.

Periodicals This section covers magazines and periodicals in which Siegfried Sassoon has had his work published or contain stories about him during his lifetime.

Music A small but hopefully growing section highlighting any of Siegfried Sassoon’s poems that have been put to music.

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.

Sassoon Biography A short, one page biography of Siegfried Sassoon.

Keynes Biography A short, one page biography of Sassoon’s bibliographer, Sir Geoffrey Keynes.

Contact Please contact me from this page.

Links Web sites which may or may not relate to Siegfried Sassoon but could still be of interest to others.


	UPDATED 30th JUNE 2009


	*Web site created by David Gray, 2008 - Please feel free to Contact me*


	[Home Page] [Sassoon Books] [Contributions] [Catalogues] [About Sassoon] [Modern Day] [Periodicals] [Music] [His Library] [Sassoon] [Keynes] [Contact] [Links]