1917-1919

Sassoon


	This website is no longer being updated as the collection has been sold. It will however remain online for now for those who wish to use it for information purposes, although it will eventually be taken down.

Books containing poems contributed by Siegfried Sassoon printed between the years 1917 and 1919

The dates of the books listed here indicate the date on which the actual book illustrated was published. Where they are not first editions I have added that date in brackets. It should be borne in mind that Siegfried Sassoon may not have had a poem included in earlier editions.

	Title:	The Hydra, The Magazine of Craiglockhart War Hospital (see below)
	Author:	Edited by M. Salmond
	Keynes:	Not Collated
	Publisher:	The Craiglockhart War Hospital for Officers
	Date:	November 1917 - New Series No.1
	Description:	The poem “Thrushes”
	Title:	The Muse In Arms (Authorised American Edition)
	Author:	Edited by E. B. Osborn
	Keynes:	Not Collated
	Publisher:	Frederick A. Stokes
	Date:	C1917
	Description:	“Absolution” “The Rear-Guard”
	Title:	Georgian Poetry 1916-1917
	Author:	Edited by Edward Marsh
	Keynes:	Not Collated
	Publisher:	The Poetry Bookshop
	Date:	This copy [sixteenth thousand] 1922 (First Edition 1917)
	Description:	Eight Poems
	Title:	Art & Letters, New Series, Vol 2, No 1, (Auction photo)
	Author:
	Keynes:	Not Collated
	Publisher:
	Date:	1918
	Description:	“Wraiths”
	Title:	Georgian Poetry 1918-1919
	Author:	Edited by Edward Marsh
	Keynes:	Not Collated
	Publisher:	The Poetry Bookshop
	Date:	1919
	Description:	Nine Poems
	Title:	The Paths of Glory
	Author:	Edited by Bertram Lloyd
	Keynes:	Not Collated
	Publisher:	George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
	Date:	1919
	Description:	Six Poems
	Title:	A Treasury of War Poetry 1914-1919
	Author:	Edited by George Herbert Clarke
	Keynes:	Not Collated
	Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Company
	Date:	1919
	Description:	“The Troops” “Trench Duty”
	Title:	Les Soldats-Poetes
	Author:	Monsieur Emile B. d’Erlanger
	Keynes:	B1
	Publisher:
	Date:	1919
	Description:	“Banishment”
	Title:	The London Mercury 1919 Volume 1, No. 1
	Author:	Edited by J. C. Squire
	Keynes:	C107
	Publisher:	The London Mercury
	Date:	November 1919
	Description:	“Early Chronology”


	The Hydra - The Magazine of Craiglockhart War Hospital - New Series No.1. Slateford, Midlothian, Edinburgh: H & J Pillans, printers, November 1917. 24 pages, pictorial wrappers, illustrations and photographs.

Edited by M. Salmond, this is a striking, and extremely rare example of the in-house periodical published by and for the patients at the Craiglockhart War Hospital for Officers, which was established in 1916 for the treatment of British officers suffering from shell-shock. Among the hospital’s patients were, most famously, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, who were under the treatment of Dr. William Rivers and Captain A. J. Brock.

This issue coincides with the month of Owen’s release from the hospital after being judged fit for light regimental duties - he eventually returned to the front in August 1918 and was killed in action on 4th November, a year following the appearance of this issue. Owen is mentioned twice in the text of this issue, once in the context of activities of the Debating Society, and again, for a talk he gave to the Field Club: “...an interesting paper on the classification of soils, soil air, soil water, root absorption and fertility was given by Mr. Owen on 1st October...”

Sassoon remained at Craiglockhart into December, and in this issue, printed for the first time, is his poem “Thrushes.” Keynes incorrectly records its first appearance as the following January in THE NATION (C64). Non-patients were also invited to contribute to the magazine, and we also find a poem by John Drinkwater “Reciprocity” and drawings by G. K. Chesterton “Profiteers.”

In his Editorial the Editor thanks a Mr. Berrington for the cover and club headings art. The first series consisted of 12 numbers (April - September 1917). This New Series concluded in July 1918, after nine issues. Issues of the Hydra are extremely scarce, three issues are recorded as being held at Columbia University, New York. The National Library of Scotland also holds an incomplete run of issues, although partially in photocopies. The Napier University, Edinburgh, and Bodleian Library, Oxford, both have some copies. This copy is a rare addition to those few existing.




		Left, Editorial page. Above, first publication of Siegfried Sassoon’s poem ‘Thrushes.’


	Left, Part of the Craiglockhart Field Club report containing details of a talk given by Wilfred Owen.

	Adrian Berrington 1886 - 1923 I am indebted to David Whiting for the following information regarding his great uncle Adrian Berrington who provided the illustrations for the Hydra: Professor Adrian Berrington, designed the Craiglockhart Hydra cover for the New series. He was a patient at Craiglockhart with Sassoon and Owen, and worked on the magazine with Owen when he was editor, providing illustrations and then the vignettes in the new magazine. Adrian was badly wounded twice on the Western Front, and ended up designing war cemeteries before being appointed as a professor of architecture in Toronto.