An Unknown Soldier
by Henningham, David
- Used
- Condition
- Fine in Fine Box
- Seller
-
Portland, Maine, United States
4 Copies Available from This Seller
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
"Scientists have recently identified First World War casualties using saliva gleaned from the postage stamps on their letters home. Samples taken from their teeth, cross-referenced with a simple swab taken from living relatives, are also identifying soldiers' remains. These events mean that DNA technology has unintentionally transformed the memorial to the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey forever. This unidentified casualty was greeted by thousands of mourners in 1920, aware that he might be their loved-one, and that in his anonymity he stood for all of the lost. For these mourners he represented the hubris of industrial war, which has destructive power beyond our comprehension as the phrase âKnown Unto God' testifies. Yet now, thanks to DNA science, he can be known to us again, which means he is the only soldier we would deliberately refrain from identifying.
Does this mean that the Unknown Soldier has become a symbol for our failure to learn from the past? Do rituals of Remembrance actually enable us to forget? The million that marched through Westminster in 2003 to protest against the proposed Iraq War may well agree with that. Yet nobody is exempt from the difficulties and ironies that surround Remembrance. The politicians who lead us in Remembrance rites seem to be the first to forget. Often the rough sleepers who are shifted from the pavements before the parade takes place are, in fact, veterans. And there are people who cannot forget even if they want to, caring as they do for the wounded and missing their dead. These Unknown Soldiers continue to be a âregiment of warning' stationed all around the world.
Military technology was not the only thing that caused the First World War to become so destructive. Such a vast body of men could not have been collected without advances in print technology and propaganda. In the light of this, Henningham Family Press created An Unknown Soldier in the form of printed poetry. Our generation only has third-hand knowledge of the First World War. The text of An Unknown Soldier includes many anecdotes passed down through the family, but many horrors were never put into words. There is a void at the heart of these stories like no-man's land itself. Therefore the poem is interrupted by distorted letter forms that cut through the page like trenches in a battlefield. They allude to the dazzle camouflage created by Modernist artists like Edward Wadsworth. This was a war that artists of every stripe were a part of, from Kipling to Wyndham Lewis via the Artist Rifles. These screenprints shout dumbly from the wall. If only all propaganda were this difficult to read.
An Unknown Soldier is composed of three documents housed in an oblique wooden box. It begins with a book containing a screenprinted poem of instruction, Preparatory Oratory, which satirises official Remembrance with a voice like the bastard-child of BLAST and The Book of Common Prayer.
The second part is a screenprinted text of thirteen panels. This body of text is An Unknown Soldier himself. His dialect is from no-man's-land, it is corrupted, the conjunctions decaying to leave the more solid vocabulary like disjointed bones. The lines of poetry never make it to the other side of the page, it is typeset like a body superimposed on a battlefield. The position of the stanzas on the wall reflects the human frame like a mirror. The poem has a head, a footnote and the phrase âRed Giant' where his heart used to be. Yet the poem also resembles a network of trenches seen from the sky, and the soldier takes the reader on a walk through âThe Capital' at his belly, then to âThe Nobiskrug' in his stomach, which is the tavern on the road to hell. This is where he spent the ferryman's wages. Then on to the âSemen's Mission', where we hear about a lost generation, and finally the âLabour Exchange' where Miners exchanged pits for trenches for a period.
Part three, Funeral, March, is a triptych of verses that reflect on the author's family on the home front and in peacetime, bound as a small Order of Service. It concludes with an affirmation of enduring hope in technology; the tale of Grandad Jack, a veteran, making a copying machine. [artist statement]. Bright and unmarred. Screen-printed wooden box, loose printed sheet, bound pamphlet. Oblong 8vo. Illus. (b/w plates). Edition of 30 (first 10 are in screenprinted oblique wooden box including 13 screenprints and two pamphlets).
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Details
- Bookseller
- Lux Mentis, Booksellers (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 9426
- Title
- An Unknown Soldier
- Author
- Henningham, David
- Format/Binding
- Mixed Forms
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine in Fine Box
- Quantity Available
- 4
- Edition
- Deluxe Limited Edition
- Publisher
- Henningham Family Press
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 2011
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Bookseller catalogs
- ABAA-VBF;
Terms of Sale
Lux Mentis, Booksellers
U.S. postage is $6.50 for the 1st title/volume and $2.00 for each additional title/volume and are sent Media Mail, Insured (except for sets and oversized items, which are calculated on a per order basis). Express mail, overseas rates and special handling are available on request. Payment is expected in advance by all but institutional buyers unless arrangements are made in advance. All orders are shipped via the United States Post Office or FedEx unless otherwise requested. Maine residents must add 5.5% sales tax unless a resale or tax exemption certificate is sent. Items are returnable within 10 days if not as described for full refund. Any other return is handled on a case by case basis, our goal being the complete satisfaction of all parties involved. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us at http://www.luxmentis.com.
About the Seller
Lux Mentis, Booksellers
About Lux Mentis, Booksellers
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- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...