Books

Berkshire, England: Carpathian Press. Fine. 1999. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Small quarto in full morocco bound by Anthony Wessely, from an edition of 125, this being #1 of twenty-five. Printed by Andrew Dolinski at the Carpathian Press on mould-made papers, illustrated in 6 full-page wood engravings by Forster depicting 'the macabre ritual of a judicial hanging'. All housed in a fine green cloth slipcase. A rare modern press book as 'only five copies from the entire edition of 125 are recorded in institutions'. ; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 103pp pages .

The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, after his release from Reading Gaol (/rɛdɪŋ dʒeɪl/) on 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison. During his imprisonment, he witnessed the events leading up to the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, for the murder of his wife; these events inspired the poem.