Ernest McGaffey — War

Los Angeles , Graphic Press, 1937. First edition. Cloth. A signed vanishingly scarce book of war poetry from Chicago lawyer Ernest McGaffey, being one of only twenty-one copies. A limited edition, being one of only twenty-one copies printed. This copy is number 20.With the author's signed and dated presentation inscription to the front paste down, presented to the Royal Society of Literature of Great Britain. Vanishingly scarce. No copies found to be held institutionally or sold previously in auction. One listing found of the first trade edition (1939). In the original quarter cloth, with faux-wood boards. With a portrait frontispiece. With neat tipped-in amendments made to the contents page and to poems number III, VIII, and X.A series of ten war poems written in the build-up to the imminent Second World War, with powerful verses titled 'Sack of Liege', 'Aeroplanes' and 'Infantry Charge', among others.McGaffey was a minor poet of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After working as private secretary to Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison, McGaffey was admitted to the bar and subsequently practiced law in Chicago. He produced several volumes of poetry, including Poems of Rod and Reel (1892), Poems of the Town (1901), Cosmos (1903), and eventually this late collection. Most records of this work refer to the first trade edition published in 1939 (copies of which are also very scarce to come across) making this signed limited edition especially desirable and rare. Externally, very smart, with a few handling marks to the boards and mild rubbing and bumping to the extremities. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean, with only the author's neat inscription to the front paste down. Very Good . Ill.: None. Very Good .