An Anatomie of the World, Wherein by Occasion of the Untimely Death of Mistris Elizabeth Drury the Frailtie and the Decay of This Whole World Is Represented

Shaftesbury: High House Press, 1929. Modern fine press edition of John Donne’s 1611 elegy for Elizabeth Drury, the young daughter of his patron Robert Drury, number 27 of 170 copies printed by James and Beatrice Masters at the High House Press. Commonly known as the First Anniversary, Donne’s poem uses the idealized figure of the dead girl to symbolize all that was lost in the fall: “She that did thus much, & much more could doe, / But that our age was Iron, and rusty too, / Shee, shee is dead; shee’s dead; when thou knowest this, / Thou knowest how drie a Cinder this world is.” The High House Press, founded by Dorset schoolmaster James Masters in (truncated) 1924, specialized in small handpress editions of classic and contemporary poetry. A near-fine copy. Tall octavo, measuring 10.5 x 7.5 inches: [4], [7], 8-32, [4]. Original red and brown marbled boards, brown cloth spine with printed pastedown label, text uncut. Title page printed in red and black, red and blue decorated initials and headpieces throughout text. Numbered in ink at colophon. Light toning to endpapers, ghost of removed bookplate to upper pastedown, paper spine label chipped. (Inventory #: 1002532)