Webb, Richard. Sidney Lanier: Poet and Prosodist [signed with additional ALS]

Webb, Richard; Coulson, Edwin R. Sidney Lanier: Poet and Prosodist [signed with additional ALS]. Athens: The Univeristy of Georgia Press, 1941. First Edition. [5712]

Gray cloth with purple titles, 5 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches, dust jacket near fine with darkening to the spine panel and edges. Inscribed by Richard Webb to John S. Mayfield on the ffep, with three letters with their envelopes, details below. xvii., 108 clean pp., tight, near-fine. Very good in very good dust-jacket. Hardcover.

"This unusual book on Sidney Lanier contains two important essays. The first, by Richard Webb, is the earliest attempt to give a reasoned and rounded analysis of his work; it presents in stimulating prose the excellencies of Lanier's poetry and his prosody. A pioneer work which was the Porter Prize at Yale University, it has never before been published. Edwin R. Coulson's essay treats of Lanier's reputation and influence; much of it based on scattered published records, but Mr. Coulson has also secured original statements from many important contemporary poets." - publisher.

This copy once owned by John S. Mayfield, bibliophile and sometime curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts at Syracuse University. Mayfield was an avid collector of Lanier, wrote about Lanier's sojourn in Texas, and contributed materials to the Johns Hopkins Press multi-volume edition of Lanier's Letters.

Mayfield's 1947 signature is on the front paste-down. Above it is a pasted small portrait of Lanier. The inscription on the ffep reads, "It is a pleasure to inscribe this little volume for a man who admires and loves the life and works of that noble, poetic soul, Sidney Lanier. Very sincerely yours, Richard Webb, October 4, 1947, Vista, California." There are three envelopes tipped in on the rear end papers. The first is a August 21, 1947 TLS from Frazier Moore of The University of Georgia Press informing Mr. Mayfield of the receipt of his letter and offering this book to him for sale, with information on the whereabouts of Richard Webb.  The second is a two-page ALS from Richard Webb to Mayfield inviting him to send him the book for his inscription (8/30/47/. Webb also thanks Mayfield for sending him the pamphlet by Billy Phelps about Lanier, with Webb's reminiscences of Phelps, who oversaw some graduate work by Webb circa 1902. The third is an ALS from Webb to Mayfield (9/4/47) that was sent notifying him of the return of this book after Webb has signed. Also, laid in, is a clipping from the outside of the package in which the book was mailed, with brief note by Mayfield on the reverse.