Colin Smythe
A slightly different version of this essay was first published in
the twelfth issue of
Yeats
Annual
(London: Macmillan, 1996, pp. 253-63). The subsequent discovery
of a letter from W.B.Yeats to Harold Munro dated March 26 [?1916]
indicates that Yeats had agreed to Spare issuing 240 copies, not
200. The Poetry Bookshop received their 200 which they had
de-stapled and sewn with black woolly thread, while the balance were
kept by Spare as out-of-series copies, however the large proportion
of stapled copies - 40% - of those that I have seen or have had
described to me, would still indicate that Spare had printed many
more than Yeats believed, which he disposed of for his own benefit.
---------------
The poems -
‘The Dawn’, ‘On Woman’, ‘The Fisherman’, ‘The Hawk’, ‘Memory’, ‘The
Thorn Tree’, ‘The Phoenix’, and ‘There is a Queen in China’ - were
first published in the February 1916 issue of Poetry
(Chicago), and later in the first issue of Form, officially
published in April 1916. The first issue of Form had been
planned for February publication, but it was delayed and as the
poems had to be published in Britain at the same time as Poetry
to secure US copyright, they were published prior to the first
number’s issue, and in a manner that gave Yeats not a little cause
for heartburn. That its production was subject to a number of
complications can be adduced by the following bibliographical
description:
EIGHT | POEMS |
BY | W B YEATS | Transcribed by | Edward Pay | Published by | “FORM”
| At The Morland Press Ltd. | 190 Ebury Street London S.W. [The
whole title page printed in red.]
[a].
Japan-Vellum copies (with no watermark) 28.5 x 19.8 cm.;
[b].
Dutch handmade paper copies (made by F.J.Head & Co., with their
initials and unicorn watermark), 30.5 x 21.0 cm., numbered 1-8;
[c].
Italian handmade paper copies (watermark with ‘A.D.1470’ and figure
reading a large sheet of paper, maker not given), 28.8 x 21.6 cm.,
numbered 9-130;
[a],
20 pp., [b] and [c], 24
pp., all pages unnumbered.
[A] comprises the
title page in red, verso blank, pp. [1-2]; text, the titles of the
poems and the initial letters to each stanza printed red, the rest
black, pp. [3-19]; the words ‘LONDON | January | 1916 | E.P.’ in
red, p. [20].
[b]
and [c] have an
additional outer sheet wrapped round to create a 24 page book, so
that the pagination now comprises a silhouette of a nude figure by
Austin Spare in red, verso blank, pp. [1-2], the inner pages as
before, pp.[3-22], followed by a blank page, verso printed red with
profile of a head facing right and in [b]
the words ‘THIS EDITION | is printed on | Hand-Made Paper |
manufactured by | F.J.HEAD & CO. | 21 Gt.Russell St. | LONDON W.C.’,
while in [c] the words
‘Manufactured by’ are missing, pp. [21-22].
At the bottom
of the title page there is normally a slip attached which appears,
according to Wade, in two forms - typed and printed. The former
states
This edition is an exact facsimile of certain pages in the quarterly
periodical, FORM.
The
responsibility for the caligraphy [sic] and design rests
entirely with the proprietors of FORM.
The latter
This Edition is a facsimile of certain pages in the quarterly
periodical “FORM.”
The
responsibility for the caligraphy [sic] and design rests
entirely with the Proprietors of “FORM.”
In spite of
Wade’s statement (in every edition of the Bibliography), I
have not yet seen a copy with the typed label,[1] but should they
exist, it is most probable that they were sold before those having
the printed slip and would be exceptionally rare. It has been
suggested that the typed version is as a result of insufficient
copies of the printed version being produced, and that the shortfall
was made up by typing a quantity, but for the reasons given below, I
think this unlikely.
Eight
Poems was issued in cream card covers, lettered in black on
front cover ‘POEMS | BY | W · B · YEATS | [design of ten dots
arranged to form an inverted triangle], and sewn with black woollen
thread. The inside covers of most copies of all three versions are
printed in black as follows:
Of this Edition only 200 copies are
available
for sale of which this is No.
[handwritten]
Dutch Hand-made (8
copies) 4/-
Italian Hand-made (122
copies) 3/-
Jap-Vellum
(70 copies) 2/6
Sole
Agents:-
The Poetry Book Shop
35 Devonshire Street
Theobalds
Road
London, W.C
All three Dutch
hand-made paper copies known to me are signed by Yeats and dated by
him April 17 1916. The Columbia University copy has the 4/- price
crossed out, and ‘signed by author 21/-’ written in. Some copies
printed on other papers also have this or a similar correction.
On the
inside back cover is printed:
ERRATA.
“Memory,” line six should read
“mountain hare.”
“Thorn Tree,” second page, two
lines from the bottom should end
“Old men’s blame.”
Some copies of
each issue have no printing on the inside covers, and these are
stapled rather than sewn. Some have the Errata notice but have no
printing on the inside front cover.
The
British Museum copy is evidently an advance copy, for it was
received on 15 February 1916, produced and lodged to synchronize
with the magazine publication of the poems in America. It is printed
on Japan vellum, and lacks both the outer four page sheet and the
printing on the inside surface of the cover.
Some time
in January or early February 1916, Yeats wrote an undated letter to
Austin Osman Spare, co-editor[2] of Form, from Stone Cottage
in Sussex, which he was sharing with Ezra Pound for the winter:
Dear Spare
I
thank you very much for the “EIGHT POEMS”, so admirably transcribed
by Mr Pay. It was very gallant of you to put so fine a title page to
a little pamphlet published for copyright necessities. I have found
two errors which are I almost conclude irremediable. I only draw
your attention to them, because, one of the titles in red not being
added makes me see an unlikely chance that the pages are not
unalterable yet.
MEMORY line six should red [sic] “mountain hare”
(it is printed wrongly “here”)
THORN TREE second page, two lines from the bottom should end “old
men’s blame”, “old” has been omitted.
The
faults may have been in my type-script. So please dont think me
fussy in the matter. Only the first error is very injurious, and I
dare say a clever reader will notice what is wrong. I only feel
tagic [sic] about errors in my books.
Yours
W B
Yeats
Mr
Watt tells me that I am to have another copy or two. I shall be glad
to have them.[3]
The copy he had
been sent was printed on Japan vellum and therefore lacked Spare’s
nude figure, and it would appear that the first Yeats knew of the
illustration was when he was sent and saw it on a Dutch hand-made
paper copy on which the missing title and initial letter to ‘There
is a Queen in Sheba’ and the missing word in ‘The Thorn Tree’ had
been inserted, but that did not, as yet, have the errata printed on
the inside back cover, or the limitation notice on the inside front
cover. The British Library Japan vellum copyright receipt copy is
similarly corrected, so it is probable that Yeats was sent the
illustrated copy at this time or soon after, when Spare had not yet
been restricted to 200 copies.
While
Yeats was prepared to write a tactful letter to Spare, doubtless to
ensure that the corrections he wanted were carried out, his private
view of the production was very different, and his accumulating
annoyance began to have public outlet when, in his 26 March letter
to Lady Gregory, he wrote:
A
man has issued, by mistake he says, by design I suspect, a pirated
edition of some of my recent poems. He had proposed to make
technical publication as his magazine Form was delayed and the poems
were coming out in America. I got in a rage and limited him to 50
copies. He wrote this would ruin him and that he had not enough to
eat. I did [not] believe [him] and told Watt who was acting for me
to be firm. Then Ricketts[4] said he would pay any loss the man was
under. I gave way at once, not wishing to have Ricketts pay, and now
Ricketts says he misunderstood the situation. I feel I have rather
injured Cuala, which should have all my first editions, and myself
because the pirated edition is pretentious and has a vulgar drawing
(which Ricketts had not seen).[5]
In one of
John Quinn’s copies, printed on Dutch handmade paper,[6] Yeats
wrote:
I
think this picture vulgar. I had no responsibility for the pamphlet,
which was issued by ‘Form’ to whom I gave eight poems free. These[7]
delays made ‘technical publication’ necessary to secure my copyright
and pamphlets like this are what they call ‘technical publication.’
If you want to reproduce a poem you should print it not write it,
and if you do write it
you should not break your lines. W.B.Yeats. April 2, 1916.
While Yeats
received his first corrected copy in the second half of February, or
at the latest in the first week of March, Harold Monro of the Poetry
Bookshop received the edition about six weeks later, for he wrote to
Spare on Wednesday 12 April:
Thank you for your two letters Aprill [sic] 3rd and April
6th. I received the 200 copies of Yeats’ Poems on Monday
[presumably 10 April]. I am fixing up the whole matter with
Squire.[8] There are two troublesome points. One of them is that I
am sure that an edition of this kind should not be bound with wire,
but with thread. Squire absolutely agrees with this, and I am
proposing to have the whole dition [sic] threaded. The second
is that Yeats tells me he stipulated for a notice to be put in to
the effect that he was not responsible for the format and style of
the book. He has asked me to promise to insert a notice. I have
therefore arranged the wording with Squire and am having a slip
printed.
With regard to Form I am very sorry that
you have to adopt the policy of only allowing those who pay the full
subscription to have copies. I have now sent you cash for one
subscription and asked you to enter another one for us. I should now
like to apply for one more, making two for the Poetry Bookshop for
which I enclose cash.
This letter,
and Yeats’s dated signature on the Dutch paper copies, tends to
confirm Allan Wade’s belief that the publication date of Eight
Poems was in April, presumably around the 17th. As to the
periodical itself, Howard S.Mott Inc., in its catalog no.210, listed
a copy of Form with a John Lane review slip, requesting that
no notices appear before 28 June, and while there is no absolute
proof that Lane’s review slip came from Lane with the issue - this
is the only mention I know of Lane’s connection with it - an entry
in Charles Ricketts’ diary for Saturday 24
June 1916[9] reads ‘First copy of Form’, so this would indicate that
it was published in the last week of June. Too, as Ricketts got the
Yeats poems for Spare to publish, it is likely he would receive a
complimentary copy promptly, as soon as it arrived from the
printers.
Yeats
inscribed two copies of Eight Poems belonging to Lady
Gregory, both now in the Berg Collection of the New York Public
Library. In one, a Dutch handmade paper copy with the inside front
cover blank and slightly wider than usual, he wrote:
I
am not responsible for this pretentious publication. It is a blunder
or a piracy by the Magazine “Form” which had then to make technical
publication for reasons of copyright.[10]
In the other,
on Italian handmade paper and without a slip on the title page, he
wrote:
These 8 poems were in pamphlets to secure an English copyright. The
edition which was not the format publication I intended but this
elaborate pamphlet caused a quarrel between me and Form. I thought
it an injury to Cuala. WBY
In the Buhler
sale there was a copy on Italian handmade paper, inscribed by Yeats
on the front cover:
I
gave these poems to the designer at the request of Charles Ricketts,
R.A. W.B.Yeats June 1935. I don’t like the work. The red woman is a
brute.
In an
out-of-series copy on Dutch paper signed by Yeats (now in Penn State
University) he wrote in more forgiving mood, however:
This work was brought out without my leave, & through a
misunderstanding. It is not a form of publication or decoration that
I would have chosen.
And in a Japan
vellum copy in his own library, he wrote:
This
pamphlet was brought out by a magazine called ‘Form’ to save my
copyright as the poems were being published in America & the
magazine was delayed.
In another copy
given by Mrs Yeats to the Library of Trinity College, Dublin on the
occasion of an exhibition of the poet’s books in 1956, he had
written:
I
am not responsible for this foolish picture or anything else in this
book but the writing. A foolish or intrepid young man got them to
publish a pamphlet of poems to secure the copyright for me as his
magazine was postponed and my poems were coming out in America. I
then found he had got this book printed instead of binding up a few
sheets and so making ‘technical publication’. I got in a rage and
took steps to stop him and he wrote that I would ruin him and a
friend interceded. So now the book is out worse luck. W B Yeats.
From
Monro’s letter to Spare it is reasonable to assume that he made
absolutely sure that all the 200 numbered copies he received had the
wire staples removed, were then sewn and had the printed label stuck
to the title page. All sewn copies I have seen have the staple
marks, and I would guess that wool was used as a means to mask the
holes, but in most cases the thread has suffered much from the
passage of time. However, the high number of unnumbered,
disclaimerless, stapled copies indicates that many more copies were
produced, of which the Poetry Bookshop – and Yeats – knew nothing.
These copies must be regarded as out-of-series, produced as they
were without Yeats’s permission.
As the 1911 (and subsequent) British copyright acts stated that the
British Museum (alone of the six copyright receipt libraries) has to
receive a copy of every work on the best paper, finished and
coloured as the best copies and in the best binding,[11] it is
probable that the 70 (or more) Japan vellum copies were the earliest
printed, and may have been the only copies originally planned and
extant in mid February, with the Italian and Dutch handmade paper
copies being produced as an afterthought as part of the money-making
exercise. Of course, Spare may well have known nothing of the
precise terms of the Act, and merely understood that he had to have
a copy delivered to the British Museum Library by a particular date
in order to protect Yeats’s copyright.
Regardless
of the copyright requirement, it would appear that Yeats’s view is
correct: Spare only handed over 200 copies to the Poetry Bookshop,
but had undoubtedly produced more copies of each type which,
however, he could not sell to the Poetry Bookshop because of the
poet’s limitation, even had he thought of doing so. The temptation
not to destroy the extra copies and to sell them off quietly
obviously proved too great, and once the 200 copies had sold out, it
would have been easy to dispose of his extras, merely by supplying
anyone who asked him if he had any copies left: the few shillings
arriving from such transactions would have gone straight into his
pocket.
Although
it is doubtful that Yeats would have been interested in
bibliographical pedantry, he would certainly have been outraged had
he known the full extent of Spare’s sales of ‘out-of-series’ copies,
as he already felt guilty that these poems had not had their first
non-periodical publication in a book issued by the Cuala Press.
Regardless of how much he knew, or suspected, it is very obvious
that the matter irritated Yeats for the rest of his life whenever he
saw copies of the offending publication.
To
consider publication dates: the copies were first issued to protect
copyright, the poems having to be published first in the UK as
everything hinged on the date they were received by the British
Museum Library. Yeats must have received his first copy before that
sent there, as the latter contains the requested corrections, but
with the exception of the advance copies that he presumably sent to
John Quinn and possibly Lady Gregory, and those mentioned below, no
one else appears to have been sent a copy until the Poetry Bookshop
stock had been sewn and the labels stuck in. Regardless of the dates
that Yeats received his advance copies, it would seem that the
official publication date must have been a few days after Monday 17
April, the date Yeats signed the Dutch paper copies. If these copies
had been sent to Yeats for signature with a quantity of sewn copies
for his own use (including nos. 114, 118, 121 and maybe 122), this
would indicate that the labels had not arrived by that date and were
only stuck into the Dutch paper copies once Monro had got them back
from Yeats.
As to the
‘pamphlet’ itself, only the sewn and numbered copies are truly ‘in
series’ and all others, including the copyright copies and those
sent initially to Yeats, are advance and/or out of series. From
those known numbered copies, it would also appear that all had a
printed slip inserted, except a block of sewn copies probably given
to Yeats by the Poetry Bookshop before the labels arrived from the
printers, who gave them out of family and friends, including no. 114
belonging to Lily Yeats, no. 118 to P.S.O’Hegarty, no. 121 to Oliver
St John Gogarty, and no. 122 (now in the British Library).
With
regard to the question of the date of those with typed labels, I
consider it unlikely that the printers produced too few labels -
every printer worth his salt normally printing a number of ‘overs’,
but as copies would appear to have been sent to Yeats before Monro
got the printed slips, he may well have sent out a few with the
basic text typed in to comply with the poet’s requirements, possibly
for review (although none are known). It is possible that the copies
mentioned above were sent to a Dublin bookseller, from whom they
were bought, but as they would certainly have had a ‘responsibility’
slip inserted, I consider the latter scenario unlikely.
The
numbered copies checked and used as the basis for the conclusions
given in this article are nos. 2, 3, 34, 199 (Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Centre), 6 (Columbia University), 21 (University
of Colorado, Boulder), 26 (P & B. Rowan, Belfast), 31 (Bernard
Quaritch), 43 (Clark Memorial Library), 50 (University of Florida,
Gainesville), 59 (Mills Memorial Library, MacMaster University), 64
(Wellesley College), 67 (Library of Congress), 78 (Beinecke), 79 (SUNYAB),
87 (Princeton), 114 (Anne Yeats), 118 and 189 (Kenneth Spencer
Research Library, Univ. of Kansas) 121 and 178 (Colby College), 122
(British Library), 139 (Wesleyan), 145 (University of California,
San Diego), 151 (University of Massachesetts, Amherst), 152
(Huntingdon), 155 (McCabe Library Swarthmore), 165 (Oberlin), 170
(Cornell), 185 (Harvard), 186 (Olin Library, Mills College) and 192
(Michigan State University, East Lansing). All are sewn and all but
three (114, 121, 122) have labels, and all the labels are printed.
I know of
the following out-of-series copies: eight on Dutch (unicorn
watermarked) paper (including those inscribed to Quinn and Lady
Gregory); nine on Italian (AD 1470 watermarked paper), and six on
Japan vellum. All but one of these have been stapled only, the
single exception may have been one of a very few extras sewn in case
any copies got damaged and needed replacing. Limitation notices
appear in four of the unnumbered Dutch copies and four of the nine
unnumbered Italian copies, while none of the unnumbered Japanese
vellum copies have the notice. None of the out-of-series copies have
labels. It can be assumed that Spare quietly sold off all these
copies as and when he could.
The fact
that some of the unnumbered copies have been printed on the inside
front cover can be accounted for by the normal system of printers
always printing a few more copies – ‘overs’ – than required.
To end:
the second issue of Form (April 1917)[12] contained the
following apology on the inside front cover:
It
is a matter of great regret to the editors of Form that a
confusion of responsibilities led to a misunderstanding of the exact
conditions of Mr. Yeats’ copyright in his poems published in the
first number, and to the consequent infringement of American
copyright in them held by the magazine POETRY, published monthly in
Chicago. POETRY, which printed these poems in February, 1916, owned
the American serial rights, and Form, being an international
quarterly, could not legally sell its first issue in America except
through arrangement with the editor of POETRY. This necessary
consent was not obtained. The editors and publishers of Form
feel that the forbearance of the editors of POETRY in not exercising
their rights under the law of copyright evinced good feeling and
kindness of the highest order, of which we are thoroughly
recognisant.
Perhaps
the last words should be left to Ricketts, whose diary entry about
his copy of Form partly quoted above, continues, laconically,
‘The literary contributions are better than the artistic’.
NOTES
1 One
completer of my questionnaire indicated that his library’s copy had
a typed label, but as he included a photocopy, I saw that it was, in
fact, printed.
2
Form’s
other editor was Francis Marsden
3 I am
indebted to John Kelly for the copy of this letter and that from
Harold Monro.
4 Charles
Ricketts (1866-1931), artist and connoisseur, friend of Charles
Shannon, had just declined the position of Director of the National
Gallery, London.
5 Allan Wade
(ed.) The Letters of W. B. Yeats (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954),
p. 609.
6 Lot 11592
in the sale of John Quinn’s library in 1923-24. There were over
12,000 lots, which realised $226,351,85 - a poor price as $111,000
of this came from his Joseph Conrad collection, contained in 230
lots. Sadly, the entry in the sale catalogue merely states that it
is one of 8 copies on Dutch paper, so it is impossible to know
whether it was numbered or not, while the date of the inscription
makes it particularly interesting. I have been unable to ascertain
its present whereabouts, but one must assume that it must be
unnumbered and stapled, having been inscribed to Quinn at much the
same time as the main consignment was delivered to the Poetry
Bookshop.
7 Probably
‘Their delays’. The transcriptions in the Quinn catalogue of Yeats’s
inscriptions are not always accurate. For example, Yeats rarely used
full stops in his signature, yet they appear in every one given.
8 J[ohn]
C[ollings] Squire (1884-1958) was Literary Editor of the New
Statesman at the time. In 1919 he established the London Mercury, in
which much of Yeats’s later work was to appear.
9 British
Library, Ricketts & Shannon papers, 58107.
10 This
wording is echoed in his inscription on another copy, now in the
possession of Professor G.M.Harper: ‘I have had nothing to do with
the publication of this pretentious pamphlet’.
11 Section 15
of the 1911 Copyright Act [1 & 2 Geo.5, Ch.46] was not repealed by
the 1956 Act [4 & 5 Eliz.2, Ch.74] or the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 [Ch.48], and remains in force.
12 In spite
of describing itself as ‘A Quarterly of the Arts’, this was only the
second issue, appearing a year after the first.
Acknowledgements.
I am most
grateful to the following owners for permission to quote the
inscriptions in their copies of Eight Poems:
The Henry W.
and Albert A. Berg Collection of the New York Public Library (Astor,
Lenox and Tilden Foundations); Anne Yeats; The Library of Trinity
College, Dublin; The Library of Pennsylvania State University; and
Professor George Mills Harper.
I am most
grateful to the following for completing my questionnaire:
an anonymous
member of staff (Poetry/Rare Books Collection, SUNYAB Library),
Peter Berg and Mildred Jackson (Michigan State University Library,
East Lansing), John Bidwell (Clark Library, UCLA), Anthony Bliss
(Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley), J. P.
Chalmers (HRHRC), Cathy Cherbosque (Huntingdon Library), Linda
Claassen (Mandeville Dept of Special Collections, University of
California, San Diego), Lynne Farrington (Cornell University
Library, Edward Fuller (Special Collections Librarian, McCabe
Library, Swarthmore College), Lisa Gedigian (F. W. Olin Library,
Mills College), Vincent Giroud (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library, Yale University), Rick Gekowski, Warwick Gould (Royal
Holloway & Bedford New College, University of London), Charles
E.Greene (Princeton University Libraries), Terry Halladay (Wm. Reese
& Co., New Haven,
CT), Professor George Mills Harper, Carmen R. Hurff (University of
Florida Libraries, Gainesville), John D.Kendall (Head, Special
Collections, University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Patience-Anne W.
Lenk (Colby College Library), Charles Mann (Chief, Rare Books &
Special Collections, Pennsylvania State University Libraries,
University Park), Linda M. Matthews (Head, Special Collections,
Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta, GA), William
L.Mitchells for Alexandra Mason (Kenneth Spencer Research Library,
University of Kansas), Alice Morgan (Special Collections, University
of Colorado Libraries, Boulder, CO), Megan Mulder (Wake Forest
University Library, Winston-Salem, NC), Timothy D.Murray (University
of Delaware Library, Newark), Milton McG. Gatch, Robert K.O’Neill
(Burns Librarian, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA), Ruth R.Rogers
(Special Collections Librarian, Wellesley College), Donald W. Rude
(Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX), Dina B.Schoonmaker (Head,
Special Collections, Oberlin College Library), Rob Shields (Library
of Congress), Roger Eliot Stoddard
(Curator of Rare Books, Harvard College Library), Elizabeth A. Swaim
(Wesleyan University Library), and Cynthia Wall (Newberry Library,
Chicago).