Robert Graves | Country Sentiment, London, 1920, first edition, inscribed to Sassoon and Owen's psychologist

Robert Graves

Country Sentiment. London: Martin Secker, 1920

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO DR W.H.R. RIVERS, 8vo, rebound in chagrin leather similar to the design and colour of the original board, some toning and dampstaining to endleaves

Inscribed by the author to his friend and mentor, the psychologist who treated Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen for shell-shock at Craiglockhart: "W.H.R. Rivers from Robert Graves 1921". Although never a patient of Rivers himself, Graves described him to Sassoon as one of his "inner circle" of friends and often sought his opinion on the psychology of poetry (co-dedicating his On English Poetry to him and to T.E. Lawrence in 1922). Upon Rivers's unexpected death later that same year, Graves described him as "the finest scientist in Britain." The last inscribed copy of this title to appear at auction was over a quarter of a century ago. A very good copy.