Clearwater Books

EDWARD THOMAS. The Woodland Life. William Blackwood and Sons, London and Edinburgh 1897. First Edition, second state. 234pp + ii publisher's advertisements. Decorated olive-green buckram lettered in gilt at spine and in dark green at upper board. With a captioned tissue-protected frontispiece. A hint of darkening to backstrip and board edges and some light spotting to several preliminary leaves. Embossed publisher’s compliments stamp to corner of title and dedication leaves. Former owner details to a blank preliminary, one inked (dated 1905) and the other in pencil. A super copy of Thomas' uncommon first book, published when he was nineteen years old and comprising eleven essays and a diary covering the period April 1895-April 1896. See Eckert 185-187. £350

EDWARD THOMAS. The Woodland Life. William Blackwood and Sons, London and Edinburgh 1897. First edition, an un-recorded variant of Thomas’ most uncommon first book, which is not noted in Eckert, but generally corresponds to the second issue but with cream endpapers, instead of the typical black. 234pp + ii publisher's advertisements. Decorated olive-green buckram lettered in gilt at spine and in black at upper board. Publisher’s imprint (“Edinburgh”) in gilt to base of spine. Frontispiece. A little spotting and browning to one blank preliminary and some very light occasional spotting throughout. An unusually crisp copy of Thomas' uncommon first book. £350

EDWARD THOMAS. Rest and Unrest. Essays. Duckworth, London 1910. First edition (Eckert’s first issue). Small 8vo. 191pp. Vertical rubbed green cloth lettered in gold at spine and upper board with a blind border to upper board and publisher’s motif blind-stamped to rear board. Cloth very lightly marked in places with some toning to the backstrip. Head of spine rubbed and with two tiny nicks. Tips of several corners just a little rubbed. Endpapers lightly browned but thereafter a lovely crisp copy internally. Contemporary gift inscription neatly inked to front endpaper alongside a short verse. Nine narrative essays, seven making their first appearance in print. Eckert page 204. £50

EDWARD THOMAS. Windsor Castle. Described by Edward Thomas and pictured by Ernest Haslehust. Blackie, ‘Beautiful England’ series, London, Glasgow & Bombay 1910. The second edition, issued the same year as the first edition and identifiable as such only by the addition of three further titles to Beautiful England series advertisement. Small 4to. 56pp. Paper-covered boards with an in-set colour plate (a detail of the frontispiece). With a frontispiece and eleven captioned colour plates. Spine ends a little chipped, and with some chafing to extremities. Endpapers and pastedown lightly browned and spotted, and with a light scattering of further spotting to the fore edge. Former owner name inked to the front free endpaper. A nice bright copy. See Eckert pp. 207-8. £10

EDWARD THOMAS. Richard Jefferies. His Life and Work. Hutchinson, London 1909. First edition. 8vo. xi + 340pp. Top edge gilt.  With a tissue-protected portrait frontispiece, twelve captioned plates including a facsimile reproduction of a letter from Jefferies and a two-colour fold-out map at the rear. Some rubbing to the spine ends ands corner tips and just a touch of chafing to the cloth at several extremities. Free endpapers browned and with some fox spotting to the edges and throughout, predominantly impacting the margins. A good, sound copy of this scarce first edition (and the only illustrated edition) of Thomas’ study of Richard Jefferies. See Eckert p.199. £75

EDWARD THOMAS. Richard Jefferies. His Life and Work. Hutchinson, London [1911]. The second edition, a variant issue not noted by Eckert, yet almost certainly preceding it, issued without a half-title or advertisement leaf showing uniform volumes, and with a different price. 8vo. 352pp. Plum-coloured cloth lettered and ruled in gold at spine and with the publisher’s device gilt-stamped to upper board. Top edge gilt. Portrait frontispiece. Flyleaves browned, with some light spotting to preliminary leaves and a touch of age toning to paperstock. A nice crisp copy in soiled, stained, chipped, torn and dusty dust wrapper. The first edition of Thomas’ study of Jefferies was published in 1909 and included, along with the frontispiece, thirteen illustrations and a folding map. These were not included in the second edition although the dust wrapper still states “with illustrations and a map”. The two editions were produced in different sizes so the wrapper cannot be left over from the 1909 stock and therefore the presence of this text must simply be an oversight. Eckert states that this second edition was issued on 6 October 1911 as part of “Hutchinson’s 1/- Net library” and yet the faded price on the spine panel of this issue states “2/- Net”, suggesting it was issued prior to Eckert’s state (and also explains the absence of the advertising leaf). £50

EDWARD THOMAS. Rose Acre Papers, including essays from Horae Solitariae.  Duckworth, London 1910. First edition, variant binding lettered in black rather than gilt and without the gilt top edge and decorated endpapers. 186pp + iv publisher's advertisements. Small 8vo. A really lovely, bright copy, complete with the original dust wrapper (featuring a photographic portrait of Thomas), the jacket dust-marked, chipped with a little loss to foot of front panel and a little rubbed. Scarce thus. £225

EDWARD THOMAS. The Tenth Muse. Martin Secker, London [1917]. Third issue with a new prefatory eight page memoir of Thomas by John Freeman. 141pp + ii publisher’s advertisements. Blue smooth-weave cloth with tanned paper spine label. Endpapers lightly browned and with some light spotting to the first half-dozen leaves. A very nice, bright copy of a book which originally formed chapter eight of Thomas' 1910 book Feminine Influence on the Poets and consists of a series of brief studies  of the love poems of English poets from Chaucer to Shelley, here slightly revised. £40

EDWARD THOMAS. The Tenth Muse. Martin Secker, London [1917?]. Probably the second state of the third issue, without the memoir by John Freeman (Eckert suggests that this second state was probably published prior to the first, and upon the death of Thomas the memoir added). 8vo. 141pp + [ii] publisher’s catalogue. Blue cloth with dulled gilt lettering to spine and a treble blind border to upper board. Top edge dust marked with a short tear to the cloth at rear gutter. Edges and margins of several preliminary leaves lightly spotted. A dusty copy, but really quite crisp internally. £20

EDWARD THOMAS. The Country. B.T.Batsford, London [1913]. First edition. Small 8vo. 59pp. Spine faded and just the faintest hint of foxing to preliminary leaves, otherwise a very clean and bright copy. No dust wrapper. £40

EDWARD THOMAS. In Pursuit of Spring. With six tipped-in colour plates by Ernest Hazelhurst [i.e. Ernest Haslehust] with captioned tissue protectors. Thomas Nelson, London 1914. First edition, first state. 8vo. 301pp. Blue vertically ribbed cloth, gilt lettered at the spine and upper board with a small gilt ornament. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Map-illustrated endpapers. The six plates are correctly signed ‘E.W.Haslehust’ but the artist’s name is spelt incorrectly on the List of Illustrations page (seemingly a common occurrence with Haslehust contributions). Just a touch of darkening to the cloth at the board extremities, and a little light wear to the spine ends and corner tips. A single tiny area of surface abrasion to the head of the front free endpaper.  A lovely crisp copy, lacking the fugitive dust wrapper. An account of February 1913 bicycle tour from London to the Quantock Hills; and significantly the book which convinced Robert Frost that Thomas was in fact a poet, upon finishing it Frost urged his friend to turn his attention henceforth to verse. See Eckert pp.232-233. £350

EDWARD THOMAS. The Flowers I Love. An anthology of flower poems selected by Edward Thomas and accompanied by a series of twenty-four drawings in colour by Katherine Cameron. T.C. & E.C. Jack, London and Edinburgh [1916]. First edition. 4to. 81pp. Linen-backed paper covered boards, lettered and decorated (by Cameron) in gold at spine and upper board. With a title page decoration, a tipped-in colour frontispiece and twenty-three delightful tipped-in colour plates. A number of pages uncut. Tips of corners gently bumped. A small area of discolouration to head and base of spine. Endpapers browned. A very good copy in lightly worn and rubbed dust wrapper with four or five tiny slivers of loss and one short closed tear. Chipped and tanned publisher’s price label to spine panel and remnants of another, carefully removed, to front panel. A delightful production, most uncommon in the dust wrapper. £175

EDWARD THOMAS contributes ten poems to Twelve Poets. A Miscellany of New Verse. Selwyn & Blount, London 1918. First edition. 127pp + viii publisher’s catalogue dated autumn 1918. Paper-covered boards, tanned and dust marked with a two-inch shallow score to upper board. Tips of corners lightly chafed, and with a little light wear and chipping to head of spine. Crease to front endpaper and half-title and fairly poor quality paperstock quite tanned. Faint ghost of partially erased former owner pencilled name to front endpaper and another to front pastedown Quite a good copy. (Also includes Vivian Locke Ellis' poem April, 1917 To Edward Thomas; Killed in action on Easter Monday.) £60

EDWARD THOMAS contributes his short story Crowbit to an issue of the periodical The English Review. Edited by Austin Harrison. Volume X, No. 4 (i.e. number 40), March 1912. Tall 8vo. Card wrappers, chipped at spine ends and lightly soiled and creased. A nice bright copy.  The first appearance in print of this six-page Thomas story, which was subsequently collected under the title Helen in his posthumous volume Cloud Castle and other Papers (1922). £35

EDWARD THOMAS contributes a review of Richard Curle’s Shadows Out of the Crowd to a special double issue of the periodical The Bookman. Vol. XLIII, No. 253. October 1912. 4to. Internally stapled card wrappers, spotted, soiled and chipped with one small area of loss, and some chipping to spine. About a good copy. The supplement, a portrait of James McNeill Whistler, is laid-in, as issued. £20

EDWARD THOMAS contributes a review of S.Baring Gould’s The Church Revival: Thoughts Thereon and Reminiscences to an issue of the periodical The Bookman. Vol. XLVI, No. 272. May 1914. 4to. Stapled card wrappers, the staples rusted and defective and the wrappers lightly rubbed, chafed and dust marked. A nice crisp copy. £20

EDWARD THOMAS contributes a review of volumes XXI and XXII of The Collected Works of William Morris to an issue of the periodical The Bookman. Vol. VII, No. 281. February 1915. 4to. Stapled card wrappers. The staples rusted and the rear wrapper very lightly dust soiled. Very good. £20 

EDWARD THOMAS. Poems by Edward Thomas (“Edward Eastaway”). Selwyn & Blount, London 1917. Second edition (published one month after the October 1917 first edition and identical to it, save for the advertisements leaves and a single tiny textual correction). 8vo. 63pp + [ii] publisher’s advertisements at rear. Paper-covered boards with a paper spine label. Tissue-protected portrait frontispiece of the author taken by Duncan Williams. A trace of light wear to spine ends and tips of corners and just a tiny hint of fox spotting to endpapers and some browning to frontispiece margins, tissue and head of title page. A very good copy. Sixty-four poems, the author’s first regularly published collection of verse. £150

EDWARD THOMAS. Cloud Castle and Other Papers. With a two-page foreword by W.H.Hudson.  Duckworth, London 1922. First edition. 8vo. 197pp. Spine ends just a little rubbed,  top edge lightly dust marked and with a little browning to endpapers and miscellaneous blemishing to half-title. A lengthy vertical crease to the rear free endpaper. A nice crisp copy in a poor example of the uncommon dust wrapper, separated into several parts and with some poorly executes taped repairs. Fifteen essays, many of them appearing here in bookform for the first time, and including two extracts from his only novel, The Happy-go-Lucky Morgans specially revised by the author for inclusion in this book. Hudson's foreword remains incomplete - he died shortly after accepting the commission, leaving but a fragment. £50

EDWARD THOMAS. Cloud Castle and Other Papers. With a foreword by W.H.Hudson.  Duckworth, London 1922. First edition. 8vo. 197pp. Blue cloth lettered in gold at spine and in blind at upper board, with the publisher’s motif blind-stamped to the base of the rear board. A hint of rubbing to cloth at spine ends, and some light spotting to edges and preliminary leaves. A very crisp and bright copy, lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. (See Eckert p. 250). £35

EDWARD THOMAS. Cloud Castle and Other Papers. With a foreword by W.H.Hudson. Duckworth, London 1922. The second issue, in lighter blue cloth with the spine lettering stamped in black instead of gold, and without the blind-stamped publisher’s motif to the rear board. 8vo. 197pp. Spine ends and corner tips just a little rubbed, and with some spotting to edges, preliminary and concluding leaves and occasional leaf margins. Former owner bookplate to the front pastedown. Quite a bright copy. No dust wrapper. (See Eckert p. 251, who notes this second issue, but has not seen it). £15

EDWARD THOMAS. Cloud Castle and Other Papers. With a foreword by W.H.Hudson. Dutton, New York [1923]. The first American edition. 8vo. Covers just a little spotted. A bright copy. Fifteen essays. £15

EDWARD THOMAS [Selected Essays]. George G.Harrap, ‘Essays of To-Day and Yesterday’ series, London 1926. First edition. Small 8vo. 60pp + [i] bibliography. Blue cloth with white lettering to the spine and upper board (this binding variant not noted by Eckert). Spine ends rubbed and with a touch of spotting to preliminary leaves and to occasional margins. A strip of very light partial browning to the free endpapers. Former owner bookplate and inked name of the same. A nice crisp copy housed in a tanned and chipped patterned later issue dust wrapper (advertising twenty-seven titles on the front flap, as opposed to the seventeen mentioned within). An introductory note by F.H.P[ritchard]. precedes eight nature essays collected from Light and Twilight, Cloud Castle, Rose Acre Papers and Rest and Unrest. The seventeenth volume of Harrap’s Letters of To-Day and Yesterday series. See Eckert pp. 252-3. £35

EDWARD THOMAS. The Childhood of Edward Thomas. A Fragment of Autobiography. With a preface by Julian Thomas, the author’s younger brother. Faber, London 1938.  First edition. 8vo. 152pp. Covers a little tanned at some edges and with a small bump to the tip of one corner and some light spotting to the margins of endpapers and pastedowns. Two short creases to the corner of the front free endpaper. A bright copy. No jacket.  £50

EDWARD THOMAS. Rain. Thomas’ eighteen line poem, hand-set and printed at the press of Eric & Joan Stevens, London [1979?]. A single sheet, folded to form four pages. A little marked and creased. Uncommon. £35

EDWARD THOMAS. Bright Clouds. A poem. The Cherub Press [Solihull], 1984. A separate edition of Thomas’ eighteen line poem, handset and printed on Japanese handmade paper and tipped to a folding lettered card. Half a dozen very faint fox spots to the text. A very good copy of a delightful and uncommon piece of Edward Thomas ephemera, probably produced in very small numbers. £25

EDWARD THOMAS. Elaine Wilson. Edward Thomas. A Mirror of England. With calligraphy and illustrations by Frederick Marns. Shepheard-Walwyn, London 1985. First edition of this collection of seventy-three Thomas poems preceded by an eighteen-page introduction. 8vo. 158pp. Decorated endpapers featuring Laurence Whistler’s engraved glass windows, dedicated to Edward and Helen Thomas. Top edge lightly spotted else in virtually fine state with fine price-clipped dust wrapper.  Former owner gift inscription inked to a blank preliminary, and a former owner name inked to the head of the half-title. £10

EDWARD THOMAS. Edward Thomas on the Georgians. Selected, edited and introduced by Richard Emeny. The Cyder Press, Cheltenham 2004. First edition. 8vo. 214pp. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). In virtually fine state. A healthy selection of Thomas’ reviews of poets who appeared in the first issue (1912) of Edward Marsh’s seminal anthology Georgian Poets (“the only one Thomas was able to review before the war swallowed him up”). Includes Thomas’ musings on Rupert Brooke, Lascelles Abercrombie, Gordon Bottomley, Frances Cornford, G.K.Chesterton, W.H.Davies, John Drinkwater, James Elroy Flecker, Ralph Hodgson W.W.Gibson, D.H.Lawrence, John Masefield, Harold Monro, R.C.Trevelyan &c. £20

EDWARD THOMAS. Rupert Brooke 1887-1915. Privately printed by Alan Anderson, Beauly 2012. A reproduction of Thomas’ six-page Rupert Brooke obituary essay, which was originally printed in June 1915 issue of The English Review. One of a limited edition of 45 copies set in S.B.Perpetua type and sewn into plain mauve wrappers with a printed title label. Errata slip tipped to the colophon leaf. A touch of light fading to the margins of the upper wrapper, else in fine state. Uncommon. £95

EDWARD THOMAS (writing as ‘Edward Eastaway’). Six Poems. Belmont Hall, Malvern 2017. A handsome private press edition; printed, published and illustrated by Andrew Judd and issued in an edition of 150 numbered copies (this being #24) to commemorate the centenary of Thomas’ death. 6pp sewn into plain black wrappers. With one handsome tipped-in drawing. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper, with an elegant decorate title label to the front panel. Includes the poems Sedge-Warblers, This is no case of petty right or wrong, Aspens, A Private, Cock-Crow and Beauty, all originally issued by James Guthrie’s Pear Tree Press in a limited edition of 100 copies – the only book of Thomas’ verse issued in his lifetime. £50

EDWARD THOMAS. Swansea Village. The Salubrious Press, Swansea 2019. The first separate edition of this Thomas essay, issued in an edition of 500 copies to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the City of Swansea. 38pp stapled into card wrappers featuring a handsome portrait of the author by Christopher Kelly. Peter Thabit Jones’ six verse poem Edward Thomas in Swansea and a two-page note by the editor, Jeff Towns, precedes the thirteen-page essay, and is followed by an afterword by Peter Stead and an eight-page ‘Local Response’. A single pencilled correction to the rear wrapper blurb in Jeff Towns hand. In fine state. Thomas’ essay was originally published in the June 1914 issue of the periodical The English Review, and subsequently appeared in his posthumous collection The Last Sheaf (1928). £20

EDWARD THOMAS. Four Letters to Frederick Evans. Tragara Press, Edinburgh 1978. First edition, hand-printed and limited to 150 numbered copies to mark the centenary of Thomas' birth. This copy is out-of-sequence and marked "complimentary". Card wrappers, just a little chaffed at bottom edge and with a minor indentation to the cover. Internally in fine state. The page preceding the colophon appears to have been professionally removed, presumably in relation to the "complementary" nature of the item. £20

EDWARD THOMAS. Letters to America 1914-1917. With an introduction and notes by R.George Thomas. The Tragara Press, Edinburgh 1989. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to thirty copies printed on Velin Arches paper (out of a total edition of 140 copies). Tall 8vo. Forty leaves sewn into paper wrappers with a handsome floral stiff paper dust wrapper. In fine state. A collection of letters from Edward Thomas, four of them to his aunt Margaret Townsend and eight to his friend and fellow poet Robert Frost (the last dated less than a month before his tragic death). £125

EDWARD THOMAS AND HELEN THOMAS. Personal Letters. Selected by R.George Thomas, with a foreword by Myfanwy Thomas and wood engravings by Hellmuth Weissenborn. The Whittington Press, Herefordshire 2000. First edition, one of 155 numbered copies (out of a total edition of 200). 4to. vi + 22pp. Paper-covered boards with a paper spine label and a small Weissenborn vignette to the upper board. Upper board lifting a fraction. Very good indeed. Six letters dated between 1900 and 1917, three from Helen to Edward Thomas, and three from Edward to Helen, illustrated with six sanguine Weissenborn wood engravings (part of the full suite of twelve recently discovered engravings, which do not appear in Hellmuth Weissenborn, Engraver). £65

EDWARD THOMAS (interest). Geoffrey Grigson. The Contrary View. Glimpses of Fudge and Gold. Macmillan, London 1974. First edition. 8vo. 243pp. A virtually fine copy in lightly chafed dust wrapper. Handsome former owner bookplate to the front pastedown, almost entirely obscured by the wrapper flap. A one-page preface by the author precedes nearly fifty critical essays, the subjects including Edward Thomas, Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, Henry Miller, T.S.Eliot, William Morris, A.E.Housman, Emily Dickinson, D.H.Lawrence, Thomas Hardy &c. £10

EDWARD THOMAS. C.Day Lewis contributes his Giff Edmonds Memorial Lecture The Poetry of Edward Thomas to Essays by Divers Hands. Being the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature.  New series, Vol. xxvii. Edited with an introduction by Angela Thirkell. Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, London 1956. First edition. 8vo. 157pp. Top edge lightly spotted and with a strip of light partial browning to the free endpapers. A very good copy in lightly tanned and rubbed dust wrapper. £15

EDWARD THOMAS. Elected Friends. Poems for and about Edward Thomas. Complied by Anne Harvey and with a three-page introduction by Vernon Scannell. Enitharmon Press, London 1991. First trade edition. This copy signed by Anne Harvey on the title page. 136pp. Glossy card wrappers. A fine copy.  Seventy-six elegies and tributes contributed by Gordon Bottomley, W.H.Davies, Eleanor Farjeon, Robert Frost, Ivor Gurney, Wilfrid Gibson, Alun Lewis and others. £35

EDWARD THOMAS (interest). Elizabeth Jennings. Consequently I Rejoice. Carcanet, Manchester 1977. First edition. A hint of spotting to top edge, else in fine state with dust wrapper, very lightly tanned at spine panel. Eighty-eight poems including Jennings’ elegy For Edward Thomas. £15

EDWARD THOMAS. Michael Kirkham. The Imagination of Edward Thomas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986. First edition. 8vo. 225pp. Edges very lightly spotted and just a trace of former dealer pencil marks to the tip of the front endpaper. A very good copy in slightly sunned dust wrapper. A scholarly study of the art of Edward Thomas. £35

EDWARD THOMAS. John Lehmann. Three Literary Friendships. Quartet Books, London 1983. First edition. 8vo. 184pp. A touch of spotting to top edge, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, very lightly rubbed at head of spine panel. An account of the mutually creative friendship between Edward Thomas and Robert Frost (plus Shelly & Byron; and Verlaine & Rimbaud). £15

EDWARD THOMAS. John Moore. The Life and Letters of Edward Thomas. With a foreword by D.Lloyd George. Heinemann, London 1939. First edition.  8vo. 343pp. With a photographic frontispiece and three plates. A tiny indentation to one edge, a trace of light spotting to board edges and also to several preliminary leaves. Half-title quite browned. A lovely bright copy, lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. A biography of Thomas, followed by a selection of over eighty of his letters, the recipients including Helen Thomas, W.H.Hudson and John Freeman. £35 

EDWARD THOMAS. Stan Smith. Edward Thomas. Faber, ‘Student Guides’ series, London 1986. First edition – a paperback original. 221pp. Paperstock a little tanned and with some fairly discreet pencil marks to margins. Very good. £5

EDWARD THOMAS. R.George Thomas. Edward Thomas. A Portrait. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1985. First edition of George Thomas’ biography of his namesake (no relation), based on a series of hitherto unpublished letters and diaries. This copy signed by the author on the title page and dated the year of publication, and additionally inscribed by Myfanwy Thomas to an un-named recipient at the head of the acknowledgements leaf. 8vo. x + 331pp. Very good indeed in edgeworn dust wrapper. This copy formerly owned by Professor Masatsugu Ohtake of Waseda University, an authority on the poetry of Edward Thomas, with (presumably) his neat pencil marks to the margins throughout and two pages of hand-written notes laid-in. The Ohtake Collection now forms the core of the Hughes Hall College Rare Books Collection. £75

EDWARD THOMAS. R.George Thomas. Edward Thomas. A Portrait. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1985. First edition. 8vo. 331pp. With a facsimile page from Thomas’ notebook and twenty photographs.  Small bump to base of upper board and some occasional light pencilled marks and margin notes. A very bright copy in dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at spine ends and with a shade or two of fading to spine panel. £15

HELEN THOMAS (Edward Thomas interest). Time and Again. Memoirs and Letters. Edited by Myfanwy Thomas. Carcanet New Press Ltd. Manchester, 1978. First edition. 8vo. 159pp viii photograph album. A narrow strip of very light browning to the free endpapers and a former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in very good dust wrapper. £15

MYFANWY THOMAS (Edward Thomas interest). One of These Fine Days. Memoirs. With drawings by Henry Croly and various photographs. Carcanet New Press, Manchester and Mid Northumberland Arts Group, 1982. First edition of this evocative account of the childhood of Myfanwy Thomas, daughter of Helen and Edward Thomas. 8vo. 164pp. Top- and fore edge lightly spotted, with a touch more light spotting to the endpapers and several preliminary leaves. A very good copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. £20