BLUNDEN, Edmund (1896-1974) & Wilfred OWEN (1893-1918). A one-page autograph letter from Edmund Blunden, and his PROOF COPY of an edition of Wilfred Owen's poems from 1931, and another later edition. (3)

BLUNDEN, Edmund (1896-1974) & Wilfred OWEN (1893-1918). A one-page autograph letter from Edmund Blunden, on paper headed "67 Pembury Road, Tonbridge,", and dated, "30 Jan. 1945", stating, "Dear Mrs Huskinson, Your letter was some little time on the way to me. I should very much like to have been able to send a copy of Wilfred Owen's work, but have not one myself; yet, if the enclosed proofs will suit your purpose, you are very welcome to them. They seem complete - & that alas gives us practically all his mature poetry as far as I know. Yours sincerely, E. Blunden. I mean of course please keep the proofs." Accompanying the letter is his PROOF COPY of the work in question, titled, "The Poems of Wilfred Owen. A New Edition including many Pieces now First Published, and Notices of his Life and Work by Edmund Blunden," published by Chatto & Windus, London, and dated 1931. A printed note on the verso of the title outlines Wilfred Owen's publishing history, concluding with the present edition: "Poems by Wilfred Owen with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon was first published in 1920, reprinted in 1921. This complete edition was first published in 1931." The copy is 135-pages long, and disbound, without proofs of the covers. The half title is stamped "Second Proof" (as it is on a number of internal pages) and is SIGNED by Edmund Blunden, who, apart from a very minor pencil amendment to the "Memoir" (p.19) which opens the book in the manner of a preface, makes only one textual suggestion relating to a word in one of the poems, "The Kind Ghosts" (p.103), where a pencil line from the printed word "hecatombs" points down to Blunden's pencil comment, "... was this an error of his pen for 'catacombs'?" With a somewhat tatty envelope from "The Spectator" addressed to Blunden, and a copy of "The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by C. Day Lewis and with a Memoir by Edmund Blunden" (London, 1964, signed and dated 21.iii.88 by Clive Wilmer). Although Wilfred Owen and Edmund Blunden did not know each other personally, they both saw active service in the trenches of the first world war, with Blunden fighting at Ypres and the Somme. Owen, after a period of recovery in England from shell-shock - during which he wrote many of his most famous poems - insisted on returning to the Front and was killed in action exactly one week before the end of hostilities. Blunden recognised his greatness as a war poet and played a key roll in ensuring his lasting legacy as perhaps the greatest of them all. (3)

Provenance: From the Collection of Clive Wilmer (1945-2025). Clive Wilmer read English at King's College, Cambridge and was Emeritus Fellow of English at Sidney Sussex College. His chief academic interests lay in the fields of Victorian and Modernist poetry, as well as in Victorian aesthetics and social criticism. He wrote and lectured extensively on both John Ruskin and William Morris. From 2009 to 2019, he was the Master of The Guild of St. George, the charity for arts, crafts and the rural economy founded by Ruskin in 1871. In 2023 he was presented with the annual Lifetime Achievement Award of the Ruskin Society of North America. He was the author of nine books of his own poetry and, in collaboration with the Hungarian poet and critic George Gömöri, he published many translations of Hungarian poetry. He contributed poems and articles to a wide range of newspapers and periodicals, including the "Times Literary Supplement", "PN Review" and "The London Magazine". From 1989-91 he was chief presenter for the series "Poet of the Month" on Radio 3 and also presented and organized many lectures and conferences/symposia in Britain and overseas. Most recently he was involved in editing the works of the poet Thom Gunn (see lot 440) for Faber & Faber, having edited his Selected Poems (2017) and co-edited The Letters of Thom Gunn (2021). Please see lots 419, 440, 444, 451, 452, 478, 479, 487 and 495 which share the same provenance.