A SHROPSHIRE LAD

First edition, first printing. Family / association copy. Original paper covered boards, quarter-bound with white parchment, cream label with red lettering to the spine, page edges untrimmed. Issued without dustwrapper. A well-preserved example, a little bumped to the outer corners and spine tips, mild rubbing to front and rear panels, minor edge wear, minimal lean to spine. The title label shows a little loss to the edges, the red lettering slightly broken and patchy, but remaining legible. Armorial bookplate affixed to front pastedown (with associated offsetting to the facing endpaper), neat ownership inscription of the author's cousin Eva V. Parker / 1898 in black ink to the front free endpaper, mild toning to rear free endpaper. The contents are otherwise clean, without marks, inscriptions or spotting.

One of 500 copies printed, of which 150 were exported for the US market (with a title page dated 1897). This copy with the ownership signature of the author's cousin Eva Vernon Housman (1871-1915) who married Arthur Paget Parker on April 27th 1898. Carter and Sparrow, in their Housman bibliography, identify four variants of the label affixed to the spine. The present example appears to be the B variant belonging to the second batch (of 100 copies) to be bound for the English market (though he adds a disclaimer that 'this remains a second degree conjecture'). One of the great works of late nineteenth-century English literature, 'A Shropshire Lad' initially sold slowly, and found its audience gradually. There have been many musical settings of the poems, most notably perhaps the six settings made by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 'On Wenlock Edge' (1909). (Carter / Sparrow / White 2). Provenance: Eva Vernon Housman Parker (ownership inscription); thence by descent.