THE OWL: A Miscellany, No. 2, October 1919.

First edition, first and sole printing. Quarto (32 x 25 cm). Original illustrated paper-covered boards. Illustrations printed by F. Vincent Brooks, Parker Street; Letterpress by Gerard T. Meynell at The Westminster Press, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. A good to very good copy, the binding square and firm, the contents, except for some occasional light spotting, are clean throughout. The lightly marked and toned boards are rubbed and nicked to edges and extremities, with a number of nicks and tears to the spine and spine-folds. Offsetting to free endpapers. Priced 10/6 to the front panel. A sound copy of this beautifully produced miscellany.

'The Owl' was the brainchild of the painter, William Nicholson, who appointed his son-in-law, Robert Graves, as the journal's literary editor, Nicholson himself choosing the illustrators, in addition to subsidising production and distribution. It was expensive to produce and purchase, the cost attributable to the palpably high quality of production. Only three issues appeared, the first in May 1919, this second in October 1919, the third following (as the 'Winter Owl') in November 1923. In a period noted for its modernist, experimental and political journals, 'The Owl' is marked by what Matthew Vaughn refers to as its "purposeful conservatism", the purpose perhaps to provide comfort and escapism in the aftermath of the recent war during which many contributors to the journal had served. Contributors include Walter De la Mare, John Galsworthy, Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden, Max Beerbohm, and Graves himself; with illustrations by Nicholson, Pamela Bianco, Ernest Grist, Nancy Nicholson (William's daughter and Graves' wife), Rockwell Kent, Derwent Wood, Edwin Lutyens, and John Nash. (Matthew Vaughn, 'The Owl: An Introduction', The Modernist Journals Project, Brown and Tulsa Universities).