MASEFIELD, JOHN — Jim Davis

New York: MacMillan Company, 1956. Reprint. Hardcover. Illustrated by Bob Dean. B&W Illustrations; This book is in Very Good+ condition and has a Good dust jacket. The book and its contents are in generally clean, bright condition. The spine ends and corners of the book covers have some light bumping and rubbing. The text pages are clean and bright. There is some toning to both front and rear endpapers. The price clipped dust jacket has several edge, nicks and wrinkled spots. The bottom spine end of the dust jacket has a chip with some tearing. "In 1921 Masefield received an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Oxford. In 1923 he organised Oxford Recitations, an annual contest whose purpose was "to discover good speakers of verse and to encourage 'the beautiful speaking of poetry'." Given the numbers of contest applicants, the event's promotion of natural speech in poetical recitations, and the number of people learning how to listen to poetry, Oxford Recitations was generally deemed a success. Masefield was similarly a founding member, in 1924, of the Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse. He later came to question whether the Oxford events should continue as a contest, considering that they might better be run as a festival. However, in 1929, after he broke with the competitive element, Oxford Recitations came to an end. The Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse, on the other hand, continued to develop through the influence of associated figures such as Marion Angus and Hugh MacDiarmid and exists today as the Poetry Association of Scotland." (from Wikipedia). Very Good+ in Good dust jacket .