Personae (1909)
A3
Editions
a. First edition
[In black:] PERSONAE | OF | EZRA POUND | [in red: device] | [in black:] LONDON | ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET | MCMIX viii, 9-59, [1] pp., 2 blank leaves. 17-7 11-5 cm. Drab or (later) light brown paper boards lettered in gold on front cover: Personae | Ezra Pound, and on spine (in later copies, the five lines of title stamping on the spine measure approximately 1.5 cm. from top to bottom as against 2 cm. in earlier copies); end-papers; fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Published 16 April 1909 at 2s. 6d; 1000 sets of sheets printed (of which an undetermined number—not more than 500—were issued as part of Personae © Excultations (1.913)). On verso of title-leaf: First published in April, 1909 Imprint on page [60]: [Device] Chiswick Press: Charles Whittingham and Co. Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London Dedication on page |v]: ... This book is for Mary Moore of Trenton, if she wants it Contents: Grace before Song—La Fraisne—Cino—Na Audiart—Villonaud for This Yule—A Villonaud: Ballad of the Gibbet. Or the Song of the Sixth Companion—Mesmerism—Fifine Answers—In tempore senectutis—Famam _ librosque cano—Scriptor ignotus, Ferrara 1715. To K. R. H—Praise of Ysolt [incorporates “Vana”|—Camaraderie [formerly “Comraderie”|—Masks—TALLYO—Ballad for Gloom—For E[ugene]. Mec C[artney].—At the Heart 0’ Me, A.D. 751—Xenia (“And | Unto thine eyes my heart”) —Occidit—Search [formerly “Motif” An Idyl for Glaucus—In Durance—Guillaume de Lorris Belated, A Vision of Italy—In the Old Age of the Soul—Alba Belingalis [formerly “Belangal Alba” }—From Syria. The Song of Peire Bremon “Lo Tort” ... —From the Saddle, D’Aubigne to Diane—Marvoil—Revolt, against the Crepuscular Spirit in Modern Poetry—And Thus in Nineveh—The White Stag—Piccadilly—Notes [to the poems, including Marco Londonio’s Italian version of “Nel Biancheggiar’”| Notes: An advertisement leaf of two pages, measuring 16-3 X 10.4 em., describing the book as “Just out.—A new note in verse The season’s sensation in poetry” and quoting from “Some early reviews,” was distributed shortly after publication and was loosely laid in some copies. Another leaf of two pages, 6 measuring 17.3 X 10.8 cm., describing Exultations as “Now ready,” and quoting the same reviews of Personae, was printed in October 1909. This was loosely laid in some of the later copies and inserted following page [Go] in others. All the poems in Personae were reprinted in Collected Early Poems ([1976])— Ags. -
b. Re-issue, with Ezcultations (1913)
. Ln black:| PERSONAE | & | EXULTATIONS | OF | EZRA POUND | [2 red: device] | [in black:| LONDON | ELKIN MATHEWS, CORK STREET | MCMXIII 4 leaves, vii-viii, 9-59, [1] pp., 2 blank leaves, 2 leaves, vii—viii, 9-51, [1], [10] pp., 1 blank leaf. 17-7 11-5 cm. Drab paper boards lettered in gold on front cover and on spine; end-papers; fore and bottom edges untrimmed. (Available with Canzoni & Ripostes as Ezra Pound’s Poems, Volumes 1 and 2, at 3s. Gd, each.) Published May 1913 at 3s. 6d; not more than 500 copies issued. This volume consists of first-edition sheets of the two books with their original title-leaves excised—the conjugate leaves (pages 13-14, in each case) being pasted on to page 12—and new half-title and title-leaf for the volume (with title-page as above) inserted at the front. Of this new preliminary matter, 500 copies were printed by the Chiswick Press. The rare occurrence of the composite volume in comparison with its separate components indicates that fewer than the intended number were actually issued.
Content is now editable.