R A K Mason
The Beggar. The author's own copy, bearing his name (twice) and amendments to the text.
1st ed. Printed [for the author] by Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, Auckland [1924]. 24mo. 26p. M1275. Brown card, stylised fruiting tree motif to front (repeated on title page). Staples removed. Red staining to upper card (approx 5 x 4.5cm) and within, a consequence of damp and the author's use of red ink for several alterations to the text. This octogenarian treasure now carries a cloudy pink border to each page, with occasional mingling of rust. Mason's first major work, preceded by 'In the Manner of Men', circulated in MS only. Famously uncommon (the author is said to have disposed of two hundred copies by dropping them off the end of Queen's Wharf) and hugely important. 'New Zealanders sometimes trace from the early nineteen-twenties the beginnings of a poetic tradition which they may call their own. Their best reasons for doing this are found between the four-inch by five-inch brown paper covers of "The Beggar", that selection from his earliest poetry which R A K Mason published in Auckland in 1924.' (Allen Curnow in the Introduction to Mason's 'Collected Poems', 1962). AF. FA.
Realised: $1,500 September 2009

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