DRYDEN, John. Songs & Poems of John Dryden. Selected, edited and introduced by Gwyn Jones. Golden Cockerel Press. 1957.
Folio. Quarter morocco over marbled paper boards; raised bands to spine ruled in gilt, spine lettered in gilt on morocco label; outer and lower edges untrimmed; pp. [ii], 3-64; some pages uncut; with collotype reproductions of 8 water-colour paintings by Lavinia Blythe [pseud. Leslie Blanche], and 11 pencil drawings; bright and clean, a fine copy.
Limited edition of 500 copies, this unnumbered.
"Dryden, I felt, merited a Golden Cockerel edition, and a glorious one. So I printed this selection from his prodigious output on a large page, in Eric Gill's 18-point Golden Cockerel type, leaded to lighten the effects of its very full body. At first I wondered where I could find suitably grand illustrations, but suddenly remembered that before the war I had seen at Constable's a fascinating set of water-colours by Leslie Blanche…And so in due course it was finished and was for me a most satisfying book, maybe my best, and one I would be happy to be remembered by" (Christopher Sandford in Cook-a Hoop No. 206).
John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668
From the collection of Thomas Yoseloff, the last owner of the Golden Cockerel Press, by family descent, but with no ownership markings.
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