Reilly 29

Octavo, pp. 144, frontispiece portrait of Gawsworth drawn by T. C. Dugdale, original green cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. Inscribed on title page: "For Joe (Gante) / Ah, / 'These far off things / and battles long ago'! / - as ever John (Gawsworth) / 1949" A selection of 205 poems from previous smaller editions of Gawsworth's work. NCBEL IV 280. A near fine copy in good dust jacket with some chipping at edges and several damp stains. (#114827).



John Gawsworth (June 29, 1912 - September 23, 1970), a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong (also referred to as T. I. F. Armstrong), was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He also used the pseudonym Orpheus Scrannel (alludes to Milton's Lycidas). He was crowned the king of Redonda in 1947 and became known as King Juan I.

During World War II, he served in the RAF as an aircraftsman in North Africa. As one of the Cairo poets, he made a more serious name for himself, being part of the Salamander group. Later he returned to a picturesque eccentricity as a Fitzrovian. His Collected Poems appeared in 1949. A later volume is Toreros (1990).