Books

First edition, signed limited issue, number 50 of 125 copies printed on japon and signed by the author and the illustrator, with four woodcut chapter headings not featured in the trade issue; this copy retains the scarce original slipcase. This poem, dedicated to Sackville-West's lover Dorothy Wellesley (1889-1956), was "an ambitious attempt to write a modern version of Virgil's Georgics by celebrating the annual round of the Kentish farming year" (ODNB). It was critically and commercially successful, and won Sackville-West the Hawthornden Prize in 1927. The artist George Plank (1883-1965) was an American illustrator, known for his long association with Vogue magazine, and employed by Vita's mother, Lady Sackville, as an interior designer. Cross & Ravenscroft-Hulme A.13(b). Quarto. Original japon-backed cream paper boards, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With the original slipcase. Woodcut frontispiece and 4 chapter headers by George Plank. Boards lightly rubbed and foxed as often, contents toned as usual; slipcase marked and toned, a couple of splits discreetly repaired: a very good copy.

Vita Sackville-West's 'The Land' is a celebrated long poem published in 1926, admired for its rich description of the English countryside and agricultural life.