The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius (1954)
A69
Editions
a. First edition
[In right half of title-page:] THE CLASSIC | ANTHOLOGY | DEFINED BY | CONFUCIUS | EZRA | POUND | [in left half of title-page: a vertical thick-rule rectangle containing, at top: Shih (Odes) ideogram representing the Chinese title of the book, and at bottom.] harvard | UNIVERSITY I PRESS I CAMBRIDGE I MCMLIV 1 blank leaf, 3 leaves, [ix] xv, [1], 223, Pp22.7 X 162 cm. Grey-green paper boards with decorative design of wavy black and grey vertical lines, with white paper label printed in black on spine; end-papers. White dust-jacket printed in black and red with, on back, a reproduction of Wyndham Lewis’s portrait of Ezra Pound. Published 10 September 1954 at $5.00; 4000 sets of sheets printed (of which 785 were used for the English issue in 1955). On verso of title-leaf: ... Printed in the United States of America Contents: Key to Pronunciation—Introduction, by Achilles Fang—Part I. Folk Songs (Kuo Feng)—Part II. Elegantiae, or Smaller Odes (Siao Ya)—Part III. The Greater Odes (Ta Ya)—Part IV. Odes of the Temple and Altar (Sung)
b. English issue ([1955])
| Title-page as in first issue, except at bottom: | FABER AND FABER | 24 RUSSELL SQUARE | LONDON Pagination and size as in A6ga. Blue cloth boards stamped in gold on spine; end-papers. Yellow dust-jacket printed in red and black. Published 25 February 1955 at 305.3 785 sets of first-edition sheets, with a cancel title-leaf (with title-page as indicated), were imported by Faber and Faber and bound and jacketed for sale in England. (In the copy sent to the Cambridge University Library the American title-leaf was not cancelled, in error.) On verso of title-leaf: First published in England mcmlv—Printed in the United States of America ... [on paper without watermark.] Notes: A second impression of 1506 copies was prepared by the Harvard University Press in June 1955. Of this impression 756 copies, with title-leaf as in the English issue of the first impression but integral, were imported by Faber and Faber and bound and jacketed for sale in England, at 30s., beginning 25 September 1955. These copies have a misprint “arrs oF PIE” for “AIRS OF PEI” in the running-title at the foot of page 19. The paper is watermarked “WARREN’S OLDE STYLE”, and the (reprinted) jacket has two errors on the back: “by GEORGE BAKER” for “by GEORGE BARKER” and “by EDWIN Moore” for “by EDWIN MUIR”. (The 750 sets of sheets prepared simultaneously by the Harvard University Press with their own imprint have the date MCMLV on the title-page, are identified on the verso of the title-leaf as “Second Printing”, and have the misprint on page 19. These sheets were not issued and in November 1963 were destroyed by the publisher, although at least one set survives (DG).) The book was published with the original title, paperbound, in July 1974 by Faber & Faber in their series of Faber paper covered Editions at £ 1.25. It was published paperbound also by New Directions in New York in September 1959 at $1.45 as their Paperbook 81, with title: Ze Confucian Odes: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius. Ezra Pound, in a first printing of about 10,000 copies (reprinted by offset from the Harvard edition). In 1976, a third printing, so identified, was issued paperbound by the Harvard University Press in Camgl bridge, Mass., at $2.95 as a Harvard Paperback, with title: ... Shih-ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confuctus. Ezra Pound. Poem No. 108, “Encroachment,” (page 51) is a complete translation of the ode of which Ezra Pound’s partial literal and free translations (based on Pére Lacharme’s Latin text) were printed in Chapter 36 of Guide to Kulchur ([1938])— A4s—pp. 214-16. Poem No. 167 (pages 86-87) is a new translation of the ode of which Emest Fenollosa’s version was edited and printed by Pound as “Song of the Bowmen of Shu.”
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