A Canticle of Praise; First Delivered in the Greek Theatre at the University of California, Berkeley, Sunday, December First and now Imprinted for the Joy of the Making by John Henry Nash

San Francisco: John Henry Nash, 1918. Limited Edition. Wraps. Near fine. Haste, Lawrence B.. One of 200 copies (unnumbered), folio size, 11 pp. Harold Witter Bynner (1881-1968), poet, was a conscientious objector during WWI and, as alternative service, taught English at the University of California, Berkeley (Cal); when the war ended he was invited to remain in the English Department to teach poetry. This short piece, "A Canticle of Praise", was composed by him to celebrate the end of the war and was performed in the Hearst Greek Theatre before approximately 8,000 people. John Henry Nash, (1871-1947), San Francisco printer extraordinaire, printed the poem "for the joy of the making". A lovely addition to any collection of John Henry Nash.

___DESCRIPTION: Blue-gray paper wraps which were folded once, lettered in blue on the front, hand sewn binding, title page printed in red within blue rules with vignette in black by Lawrence B. Haste, text printed in black and red within blue rule designs, Roman numeral folios, printed in red at the top of each page, within a box of double blue rules; Caslon Gothic type on Arnold paper, folio size (12" by 8.25"), pagination: [i-ii], 1-9 (in Roman numerals); limited edition of 200 copies printed, unnumbered.

___CONDITION: Near fine overall, the wraps with only very light creasing and edgwear, the interior pages clean, crisp and bright, and free of prior owner markings, the red and black inks deep and true, unfaded; the sewn string binding has come loose at the top half of the outer wrap, but the binding remains overall solid, some light staining to the back wrap; a remarkable copy overall.

___CITATION: O'Day p. 8.

___POSTAGE: International customers, please note that additional postage may apply as the standard shipping charge does not always cover costs; please inquire for details.

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