Wolf's-Bane

Published by Powys’s agent, G. Arnold Shaw in 1916, the example in my library retains the extremely rare and very fragile dust cover.

The cover is interesting in that the blurb on the front, no doubt written by Powys himself, sets out the intentions behind the poems in the volume, which centre on the poet’s willingness to ‘sink for their inspiration into the inalienable sorrows of the heart of man…’ These poems were written, it must be remembered, at the height of his lust, desire and longing for a woman he hardly deserved, Frances Gregg.

The quote from Shelley’s ‘Ode to a Skylark’, obscured by the damage to the dust cover, should read as follows.

We look before and after

    And pine for what is not.

***

Our sweetest songs are those
    That tell 
Of saddest thought.

In commenting on Wolf’s Bane, Powys’s biographer Morine Krissdottir first quotes Powys from Confessions of Two Brothers. ‘When I write a book, I never write for posterity… I write with quite definite people always before me.” She then continues:

While the poems might be taken simply as a general lament about the illusoriness of love or the desire for death, many have clue words which indicate that they are directed specifically at persons to whom he wishes to give either a ‘certain thrilling caress”’or a ‘certain malicious prod’. There are several that are obviously addressed to Llewelyn, at least seven to Frances, one to Louis, and a bitter one that refers to the ‘pond-newt’ who is ‘silky and soft and lewd’. (Descents of Memory, pp. 145-146).

The dust cover is also of interest for the list of books published by G. Arnold Shaw, the non-Powys authors being Ian C. Hannah and I. B. Stoughton Holborn.

Dante Thomas quotes Powys collector, Lloyd Emerson Siberell, who states that the ‘very first 100 copies of this book to reach the publisher had a beetle design upon the paper label; later issues of the first printing had the white paper, plain label’. I have to say that I have never yet seen one of the beetle books that Siberell claimed to exist.

The book.

John Cowper Powys, Wolf’s-Bane, G. Arnold Shaw, New York, 1916.

Not published in England.

The book first sold for $1.25. An old receipt found inside the book shows that by 1929 this volume sold for $3.

© John Dunn.

Wood and Stone

This is the first edition of John Cowper Powys’s first novel, which preceded the English edition by two years. It is also very likely to be the first state of binding, a fact established by the size of the lettering on the spine. In this example, the title on the spine is stamped in 1/4 inch gold letters.

Dante Thomas lists this binding as A out of the three binding variants.

However, agreement about the order of the binding issues is not universal. Lloyd Emerson Siberell argued the case that the 3/16 inch gold letters delineate the first state, whilst Powys collector E. E. Bissell made the case for the 1/4 inch, in agreement with Thomas. I quote from Thomas:

A letter from E. E. Bissell dated October 9, 1970, may help solve the problem. Mr. Bissell states that he has two copies of Wood and Stone, that P. H. Muir gives the publication date as November 5, 1915, and that one of his copies, having 1/4 inch lettering on the spine and without the publisher’s device, is signed “John Cowper Powys Nov. 13, 1915.” The easy signature made so soon after publication, seems to indicate that 1/4 inch lettering appeared on early impressions.

Wood and Stone was published by Powys’ agent, G. Arnold Shaw.

The book.

John Cowper Powys, Wood and Stone, G. Arnold Shaw, New York, 1915.

© John Dunn.