Treasure Box, by Robert Graves

FULL DESCRIPTION: Graves to Fayard

GRAVES, Robert. Treasure Box.
London: Chiswick Press, [1919].
(18 x 13.5 cm). 16 pp. Title page illustrated with a vignette and a line-drawing by Nancy Nicholson (1899–1977), who was married to Graves from 1918-1949. In the original blue wrappers, stitched as issued. A couple of short splits to the fore edge of the front wrapper, slightly faded at edges, minor spotting to fore edge of the text block, otherwise a near fine copy. Higginson & Williams A4.

First and only edition privately issued, inscribed by Graves on the verso of the front wrapper, "Jean Fayard, from Robert Graves, 1920".

Robert Graves (1895-1985) was a poet, writer, critic and veteran of WWI, during which he made important friendships with Sigfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. This is Graves's first book of poetry after demobilization following the First World War and one of just 200 copies printed and privately distributed.

Jean Fayard (1902-1978) was a French author and journalist, the recipient of the Prix Goncourt in 1931 for Mal d’Amour—upsetting Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Vol de nuit, which had been predicted to win. Fayard’s family founded the renowned Fayard publishing house. Fayard, who was at Oxford while Graves was there, published a book on his experiences there, Oxford et Margaret (1928), which offers a French perspective that is absent from accounts of Oxford in works by Compton Mackenzie, Max Beerbhom, or Evelyn Waugh. Fayard’s book is included in John Betjeman’s like of Oxford novels in An Oxford University Chest (1938)

An important literary association of a rare title.