Books

First Jones edition, first impression, out-of-series presentation copy, inscribed by the illustrator to his friend Clarissa Eden, the wife of Britain's wartime foreign secretary (and later prime minister) Anthony Eden: "for Clarissa from David, Aug. 1956". In her memoirs, Clarissa Eden remembered meeting David Jones for the first time in London in the spring of 1939: "On my return to London I began seeing old friends.. and one new, unique friend: the painter and writer David Jones. I expect I met him through Trim. He was a most unusual artist. Almost entirely a watercolourist: evanescent, dreamlike portraits or gardens or scenery. He had been seared by the First World War and wrote a masterpiece about it, In Parenthesis... He was very sensitive, reticent and sweet-natured. His book illustrations for The Ancient Mariner are exquisite. I had my copy on display at No. 10" (Eden, pp. 25-6). Quarto. Original white cloth-backed grey-blue boards, titles to spine gilt, fore and bottom edges uncut. 10 copper engravings. Spine faintly toned, a touch of wear to corners, offsetting to endpapers, contents clean and fresh with the engravings in sharp impression. A very good copy indeed. Clarissa Eden, Clarissa Eden: A Memoir. From Churchill to Eden, 2007.