Endymion. A Poetic Romance...with Engravings by John Buckland-Wright

London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1947. First thus. Very Good +. One of 500 copies, designed and produced by Christopher Sandford at the Golden Cockerel Press between 1943 and 1947. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in quarter vellum over red buckram boards. Tall quarto. 190 x 305 mm. 151, [1, colophon]. Beautifully illustrated throughout by John Buckland-Wright. Spine titled in gilt and upper board with gilt figure. Top edge gilt. Boards slightly rubbed and some foxing to a couple leaves. Ink ownership inscription, dated 1944, to upper flyleaf. Otherwise clean and fresh throughout. A Very Good+ copy of an attractive edition.

"A thing of beauty (truncated) is a joy forever: Its loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingness." With one of the most famous opening lines in English verse, Keats' Endymion is an ode to the timelessness of beauty. In retelling the mythical tale of the shepherd Endymion's love for the moon goddess Cynthia, Keats also explores the tension between man's mortality and the immortality of his muse; in doing so, he comments allegorically on the fact that while a poet himself may ultimately die, the beauty of his work will live on. "The song of Endymion throbs throughout with a noble poet's sense of all that his art means for him" (Morley). Very Good +. (Inventory #: 7041)