Four Unposted Letters to Catherine
Paris: Hours Press, n.d. [1930]. First edition. 50, [3] pp. Decorative paper boards over brown leather backstrip, spine lettered in gilt. Touch of rubbing to head and tail of spine and corners, else fine.
One of 200 numbered copies, signed by the author. Cover photomontage designs by Len Lye, of which the publisher Nancy Cunard commented, “they suggest stonelike figures and a sort of arabesque, [and] also evoke the thought of tapestry and Renaissance velvet.” The critic Herbert Palmer noted the difficulty of Riding’s verse, but went to say of this volume, “It is like going to a warm fire on a bitter cold day to turn to her very different Four Unposted Letters to Catherine which is for the most part charmingly and lucidly written, addressed to a child, full of downright truths and wisdom, and such flashes of insight as ‘Making a poem is like being alive for always.’” (Cunard, These Were the Hours, p. 107-108). Wexler A10. Item #2287
Price: $500.00