Wessex Poems and Other Verses. by HARDY, Thomas - 1898

London: Harper & Brothers,, 1898. And why unblooms the best hope ever sown? First edition of Hardy's first book of poems, one of 500 copies, a very nice example in the original cloth. This collection "brought together newly written poems, poems composed during the novel-writing years, and still others revised from originals drafted in London during the 1860s. Because a similar mix occurs in all of his volumes, individual poems are often hard to date and the volumes themselves elusive of characterization" (ODNB). Following its publication, "the thirty years that remained to Hardy were devoted to the composition of poetry, the resumption of work very dear to him which had been almost wholly laid aside, with the exigencies of novel-writing, since the decade of the 1860s" (Purdy, p. 105). Octavo. Original dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, medallion design with "TH" monogram to front cover in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Frontispiece with tissue guard, 13 illustrated plates, illustrations to the text throughout by the author. A few bumps to spine ends and front cover, a couple of small damp stains to covers, gutter cracked between a few gatherings, but firm, foxing to edges, endpapers, and first few leaves, contents otherwise clean: a very good copy. Purdy pp. 96-106.