Wyndham Lewis — Blast

London, John Lane the Bodley Head, 1914. First edition. Paperback. The first edition of the first issue of Wyndham Lewis' Vorticist literary magazine, an example of the modernist movement before World War One. The first installment of 'Blast Magazine', the first edition of this seminal work, published on the 20th June 1914. Illustrated with fourteen plates.'Blast' was a short lived literary magazine of the Vorticist movement, of which only two issues were published. The magazine is emblematic of the modern art movement in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. The magazine was primarily written by Wyndham Lewis, though this issue also contained contributions from Ezra Pound, Rebecca West, and an extract of Ford Madox Hueffer's 'The Saddest Story', which later was known as his 'The Good Solider&apos. The first twenty pages of this issue contain the Vorticist manifesto. However, war was declared on Germany just 33 days after this issue was published, an event which destroyed vorticism. Vorticism began in the Rebel Art Centre and has roots in the Bloomsbury Group, Cubism and Futurism. Ezra Pound coined the word 'Vorticism' for the movement and he produced many paintings in the same style. Without the original pink wraps, also bound without six plates, lacking plates v - viii, and xvii - xviii.Four pages of adverts to the rear.A fascinating example of this short-lived movement's main creation. Lacking the publisher's original pink paper wraps. Internally, binding is strained in places. Pages are lightly age-toned and generally clean with scattered spots. Light edge wear and heavier spots to the title page. Plates ix, xii, xix, and xx are detached but present. Bound without six plates. Fair . Ill.: Various. Fair .