The Poet in the Desert [Inscribed]
New York: The Vanguard Press, 1929. New edition, revised (first published, privately, in 1915). Warmly and lengthily inscribed on half-title: "Dear Basil Cameron / I give you this book as a friend waves his hand to the departing voyager - A good voyage and great adventure and a speedy return to us who will be waiting. It is given not as a thing of value but only as a gesture of friendship - and need never by opened." Signed by Wood; datemarked "The Cats - Los Gatos - California," March, 1932. Octavo; black cloth over peach paper-covered boards; dustjacket; 145pp. Tight, Near Fine copy in the uncommon dustwrapper, sllightly worn and soiled with later presentation (Basil Cameron to George Geenwood, Seattle) on front panel; Good or better.
The anarchist poet's magnum opus, a book-length blank-verse meditation on the sorrows of modern civilization and the depredations of industrial society. An anonymous New York Times reviewer of the first edition (1915) followed a generally positive assessment with the conclusion: "...Mr. Wood's book cannot be recommended to conventional folk, and some of its ideas cannot be commended at all; but it contains both truth and beauty, and its daring will give it zest for the intellectually adventurous" (NYT, June 30, 1915). Uncommon in dustwrapper; this copy with a glowing inscription to the noted British composer and conductor Basil Cameron (1884-1975), who was a guest conductor for the San Francisco Symphony from 1930-32, then spent the years 1932-38 as the Musical Director of the Seattle Symphony.
Price: $350.00
