Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) - photo 1
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Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Starting price
£ 7 000
Auction dateClassic
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 470161
Lot 253 | Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Poems of the Past and the Present. 1902

HARDY, Thomas (1840-1928). Poems of the Past and the Present. London: Harper & Brothers, 1902 [1901].



First edition, first issue, of Hardy’s second volume of poetry; the author’s own copy with his pencil corrections. One of 1000 copies, 500 of which were sent to New York for the second issue. ‘Poems of the Past and the Present is a group of 99 poems, almost twice as many as had comprised Hardy’s first volume three years before’ (Purdy, p.118). Thinking it necessary to explain the collection’s multiplicity of subjects, Hardy writes in his preface: ‘the road to a true philosophy of life seems to lie in humbly recording diverse readings of its phenomena as they are forced upon us by chance and change’. In pencil on the front pastedown, Hardy clarifies the correct dating of this edition – ‘First edition 1901 (dated 1902)’ – and lists three errata, to pages 184, 189, and 204, while he also likely provides corrective annotations on pages 24, 93, and 155. Purdy pp.107-119.



Octavo (200 x 137mm). Original dark green ribbed cloth, front blocked in gilt with TH monogram medallion, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed; housed in cloth and patterned paper case. Provenance: Thomas Hardy (Max Gate booklabel, pencil annotations) – Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr. (1910-2001, American bibliophile and director of the Pierpont Morgan Library; bookplate, pencil note loosely inserted, sale Sotheby’s, London, 7 November 2001, lot 506).

Place of origin:Northern Europe
Auction house category:Books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
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09.12.2020 – 09.12.2020
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