Lot 269: Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) NIGHT AND DAY. [1912]

ROSENBERG, Isaac (1890-1918). Night and Day. [London: Privately printed for the author by Narodiczky, 1912]. The exceptionally rare first edition of Rosenberg’s first book; one of 50 copies printed, and the first to appear at auction since 1981 (RBH/ABPC). Killed in battle on 1 April 1918, Rosenberg ranks alongside Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke as one of the great poets of the war period. ‘Just as Owen is one of the few poets worthy to be compared with Keats, Rosenberg is one of the few worthy to be compared with Shakespeare’ (W. W. Robson). Appearing at a time when Rosenberg was studying art at the Slade School, this slim volume was intended to raise attention and further financial support in order to continue his studies. Printed at his own expense on a local press, it includes a number of minor errors which in the present copy have been corrected in pencil by the author. Accompanying the volume is a letter by the artist John Amschewitz (described by Rosenberg as his 'only friend' at this period) to the art critic Harry Alexander Spielmann, to whom he presents the work and describes the unfortunate circumstances of the author: ‘He seems to have a soul far above the ordinary both as an artist & poet ... these poems were written under the most grinding poverty – under which he still lives ... He will need all the friends he can get in the literary world, for his is a sad personality.’ R.E. Martin, ‘Collecting Isaac Rosenberg,’ The Caxtonian, Volume XVII, No. 12, December 2009; W.W. Robson, Modern English Literature, 1970. Octavo (203 x 131mm). Original printed card wrappers (faint vertical creasing); housed in red cloth case. Provenance: John Amschewitz (1882-1942, autograph letter signed, 17 June [1912], accompanying the volume, presenting it to) – Marion Harry Alexander Spielmann (1858–1948, Victorian art critic and scholar; bookplate) – Simon Nowell-Smith (1909-1996) and Judith Adams Nowell-Smith (their respective booklabels).