Siegfried Sassoon | Vigils, Bristol, 1934, first edition, inscribed by the author to Lawrence of Arabia

Siegfried Sassoon

Vigils. Bristol: privately printed, 1934

FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 50 COPIES BOUND FOR PRESENTATION BY THE AUTHOR and number 255 of a total edition of 303, INSCRIBED TO T.E. LAWRENCE, 8vo, original boards, spine lettered in gilt, endleaves slightly toned

AN EXTRAORDINARY ASSOCIATION COPY, LINKING THE TWO MOST COLOURFUL LITERARY FIGURES OF WW1, inscribed by the author to T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. “Lawrence of Arabia”): "Salutamus”, signed by both Siegfried Sassoon and his wife Hester, and additionally signed by the author to the limitation page.

Sassoon and Lawrence were introduced by Eddie Marsh in 1918 and became firm friends until Lawrence's death in 1935, the year after the publication of this volume. Sassoon had become "enthralled by this mysterious figure" as "Lawrence, too, had been made by the war, in his case the campaign against the Turks in the Middle East" (Egremont, p. 275). Sassoon was one of the first people to whom Lawrence showed the manuscript of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, eliciting the response in a letter that it was a "bloody masterpiece" and ending with the comment: "It is a GREAT BOOK, blast you!"

Tipped-in to the book is a handwritten list by Sassoon of the dates that each poem was composed. Loosely inserted is a letter, 1p, 8vo, in postmarked envelope, dated 27 January 1957, from Sassoon to this copy's former owner Alan Clodd (1918-2002), the publisher and WW1 book collector, referring to Clodd's grandfather having been a friend of George Meredith, the subject of a biography by Sassoon.

LITERATURE

For the friendship between Sassoon and Lawrence: Egremont, Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography, pp. 220; 275