The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

London: Humphrey Milford, 1918. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good. 8vo, pp. 125, two tissue-guarded photgravures and double page facsimile, original holland-backed blue boards, the spine with label, this very slightly chipped, the boards and spine marked, corners bumped, interior with toning to end papers, marks throughout, especially on page 56, pages age toned to fore edge, uncut, binding sound. An important anthology, the first compiled of Hopkins' poems, published 29 years after his death. The editor, Robert Bridges, was a friend of Hopkins and it was his position as Poet Laureate that enabled him to bring Hopkins' poems to the fore with this anthology. 750 copies were printed and it took ten years for them to sell but by then Hopkins' technical innovations and modernist style, years ahead of his time, had been recognised and another edition was published in 1930. Hopkins died, aged 44, whilst serving as a priest in Dublin and is buried in the Glasnevin Cemetery.