Goodbye to all That

[Norrette]

Given that I'm currently reading my 1.99 second-hand copy - this attracted my attention today :-

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDe...ot_id=159469090

Norrette

[Martin Bennitt]

I inherited a first edition but unfortunately it is the reprint with Blundell's poem, which Graves printed without EB's permission, replaced by asterisks, which makes it worth not nearly so much.

cheers Martin B

edit: whoops that should be Blunden

[Norrette]

That's a pity, Martin. I wonder if there are any members on here with a copy. Be interesting to see what it sells for.

Norrette

[12101917]

I was lucky to pick up a copy of the 1st edition, 1st printing with the poem, for $20.00 in a Wellington bookstore in about 1990.

I couldn't believe my eyes , it didn't have a dust jacket and the spine was slightly faded but it was still in reasonable condition. Interesting thing was that the bookseller (who has been in the trade for years and generally seems to know his stuff) had it marked as a first ed. Obviously didn't know the significance of the poem (or more likely he is not a WW1 obsessive!) Needless to say one of the treasures of my collection ... now if I could just find an original jacket.

Cheers,

Gerald.

[Norrette]

Lucky you, Gerald! But I bet you wouldn't sell it for anything. - Would love to know what's in the expurgated passage referred to in the description.

[Tom A McCluskey]

Hi All,

I thought the first edition had a Siegfried Sassoon poem that was published without Sassoon's consent? The next edition had stars and a blank space instead of the poem.

Still wondering

Aye

Tom McC

[12101917]

The poem runs from the bottom of p. 341 to the bottom of p. 343, i.e. 2 pages and 6 lines. I don't have a scanner so I won't copy it all out. I'm sure if you Goggle a couple of lines you will find it all.

It is a verse letter from Siegfried to Graves. Here's the beginning and end:

[starts]

"American Red Cross Hospital, No. 22,

98-99 Lancaster Gate, W. 2.

Dear Roberto,

I'd timed my death in action to the minute -

[& ends]

Crammed with village verses about daffodils and geese

.... O Jesus make it cease ..."

Poets, eh.

Gerald

[Norrette]

...but also

LOT 209

GRAVES, ROBERT. GOODBYE TO ALL THAT. JONATHAN CAPE, 1929

DESCRIPTION

8vo, first edition, first state with the suppressed poem, original salmon cloth, dust-jacket designed by Len Lye, with photography by Alfred Cracknell, some minor repairs to extremities of jacket, otherwise fine

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Higginson & Williams A32a; Connolly 61

CATALOGUE NOTE

first edition of graves' wartime autobiography which made him famous. "In its original form, this is a searing work of genius in which Graves offers up a heavily rewritten version of his past life upon the altar of his present love" (Oxford DNB)

The first state has the unexpurgated passage on p.290 and the poem by Siegfried Sassoon on pp.341-343.

Norrette

[12101917]

Had a look at p. 290. It must be this anti-war bit that upset SS as well:

"In November Seigfreid and I rejoined the battalion at Litherland and shared a hut together. We decided that it was no use making a protest against the war. Every one was mad; we were hardly sane ourselves. Seigfried said that we had to "keep up the good reputation of the poets", as men of courage, he meant. The best place for us was back in France away from the more shameful madness of home service. Our function there was not to kill Germans, though that might happen, but to make things easier for the men under our command. For them the difference between being under someone whom they could count as a friend, someone who protected them as much as he could from the grosser indignities of the military system and having to [end p. 290] study the whims of any thoughtless, petty tyrant in an officer's tunic, was all the difference in the world..."

Seems quite tame stuff really.

As an aside I had a look at ABE and as per normal the dust jacket is the big "bumper-upper" of price for any modern first.

Gerald.

[MartH]

As an aside I had a look at ABE and as per normal the dust jacket is the big "bumper-upper" of price for any modern first.

As a rule of thumb it more than doubles the value.

[MartH]

I see it went for 1,875 GBP (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium) so better add VAT over 2000 grand. Wonder where it went, dealer or collector?

[Norrette]

I see it went for 1,875 GBP (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium) so better add VAT over 2000 grand. Wonder where it went, dealer or collector?

Hmm. It went for the low estimate 1500 + 25% Buyers Premium (wow!) no VAT as it's a book. Maybe the buyer was someone on here?.....

Norrette

[MartH]

Hmm. It went for the low estimate 1500 + 25% Buyers Premium (wow!) no VAT as it's a book. Maybe the buyer was someone on here?.....

Norrette

Sorry I'm not thinking, VAT is only charged on the 25% buyers premium, but not the book.

[Dave G]

Had a look at p. 290. It must be this anti-war bit that upset SS as well:

"In November Seigfreid and I rejoined the battalion at Litherland and shared a hut together. We decided that it was no use making a protest against the war. Every one was mad; we were hardly sane ourselves. Seigfried said that we had to "keep up the good reputation of the poets", as men of courage, he meant. The best place for us was back in France away from the more shameful madness of home service. Our function there was not to kill Germans, though that might happen, but to make things easier for the men under our command. For them the difference between being under someone whom they could count as a friend, someone who protected them as much as he could from the grosser indignities of the military system and having to [end p. 290] study the whims of any thoughtless, petty tyrant in an officer's tunic, was all the difference in the world..."

Seems quite tame stuff really.

As an aside I had a look at ABE and as per normal the dust jacket is the big "bumper-upper" of price for any modern first.

Gerald.

Though I'm sure it's common knowlege I offer a correction to Gerald's post above. I am blessed by having the 1929 first edition, first issue; a copy of the first edition, second issue (the one with the asterisks); and the revised 1957 edition. In the interest of accuracy, the omitted text is actually not that cited above (which is in all issues through the 1957) but the text as follows:

"He said: 'I'm sorry. I should have told you. My mother has been reading Sir Oliver Lodge's Raymond or Life After Death, and she sits up half the night trying to get in touch with my brother. It's pathetic, because he was not at all the person she thinks he was. The idiotic messages that she gets through from him, and believes, often make me anxious for her sanity. Still, she seems happy. The rappings are more disturbing sometimes and the maids think that the place is haunted.'"

The omitted passage was restored in the 1957 revised edition.

Best Regards,

Dave