DRYDEN, John. Songs & Poems of John Dryden. Selected, edited and introduced by Gwyn Jones. London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1957.
Folio, unbound, with collotype reproductions of 8 water-colour paintings by Lavinia Blythe [pseud. Leslie Blanche], and 11 pencil drawings; pp. [iv], 3-64; mostly unopened, some light markings and finger marks but otherwise near-fine, and unused.
Limited edition of 500 copies, unnumbered. An unbound set of sheets intended to be part of the original limitation, and never numbered or bound up into sets. From the collection of Thomas Yoseloff, the last owner of the Golden Cockerel Press, by family descent, but with no ownership markings.
John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668. In the Press bibliography 'Cock-a-Hoop', Christopher Sandford wrote: "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).
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