Hewlett (1928) The Iliad of Homer – numbered edition, Cresset Press

$135.00

In stock

Description

Hewlett, Maurice. The Iliad of Homer. (London: The Cresset Press Limited, 1928) Number 260 of 750.

Quarto. xii, 228 pages with a publisher’s device on second page after end of text. The book is printed on heavy, laid paper, untrimmed with top edge gilt. Hardcover in quarter-bound with a white leather spine strip stamped in gilt and orange/tan linen-weave cloth on boards stamped in gilt with a device in the shape of a torch.

Condition: VG. Spine shows some soiling. Hinges solid, no rips or tears. Spine has a crack between pages 64 and 65 which is still well attached, corners bumped. A nice copy.

“The Cresset Press was a publishing company in London, England, active as an independent press from 1927 for 40 years, and initially specializing in “expensively illustrated limited editions of classical works, like Milton’s “Paradise Lost” going on to produce well-designed trade editions of literary and political works. Among the leading illustrators commissioned by Cresset were Blair Hughes-Stanton and Gertrude Hermes — The Pilgrim’s Progress (1928), The Apocrypha (1929), and D. H. Lawrence’s Birds, Beasts and Flowers (1930). Cresset subsequently [1967] became part of the Barrie Group of publishers, and later an imprint of the Ebury Press within the Random House Group.” – Wikipedia

“Maurice Henry Hewlett (1861–1923), was an English historical novelist, poet and essayist.

“He was born at Weybridge, the eldest son of Henry Gay Hewlett, of Shaw Hall, Addington, Kent. He was educated at the London International College, Spring Grove, Isleworth, and was called to the bar in 1891. He gave up the law after the success of Forest Lovers. From 1896 to 1901 he was Keeper of Lands, Revenues, Records and Enrolments, a government post as adviser on matters of medieval law.

“Hewlett married Hilda Beatrice Herbert on 3 January 1888 in St Peter’s Church, Vauxhall, where her father was the incumbent vicar. The couple had two children, a daughter, Pia, and a son, Francis, but separated in 1914, partly due to Hilda’s increasing interest in aviation. In 1911, Hilda had become the first woman in the UK to gain a pilot’s license.

“He settled at Broad Chalke, Wiltshire. His friends included Evelyn Underhill, and Ezra Pound, whom he met at the Poets’ Club in London. He was also a friend of J. M. Barrie, who named one of the pirates in Peter Pan “Cecco” after Hewlett’s son.

“Hewlett was parodied by Max Beerbohm in A Christmas Garland in the part titled “Fond Hearts Askew”.” – Wikipedia