Ara Vus Prec.
London: The Ovid Press, 1919 [but 1920]. Limited edition, 108 of 220 copies printed on handmade paper from a total edition of 264 copies. 4to. 54 pp. Numbered by hand on page 10, signatures C and D also annotated in pencil. Finely bound in two-tone mustard and black morocco aping the design of the original cloth backed boards, lettered direct vertically to upper board with the author's name in gilt and the corrected title in black (see note). Initials throughout and colophon device engraved by Edward Wadsworth. A few old brown marks to pages 52-54, a distinctive and handsome copy. Gallup, A4. Eliot's third published volume of poetry, preceded by "Prufrock and Other Observations" (1917) and "Poems" (1919). It was printed by John Rodker who completed work in December 1919, the book being subsequently published early the following year. The title is a misprint which only only came to Eliot's attention after Rodker had finished printing. Gallup quotes a letter he received from Eliot in 1936: "The correct title of the book is Ara Vos Prec. It only happened to be Vus on the title page because I didn't know Provençal, and I was quoting from an Italian edition of Dante, the editor of which apparently did not know Provençal either..." Item #49912
Price: £2,650.00