Catholic Tales and Christian Songs; By Dorothy Leigh Sayers, Author of "OP.I"
Oxford: B.H. Blackwell, 1918. First edition. Original pictorial dust wrapper (7 1/2 inches tall) over stiff card, spine lettered in black, uncut. Mild wear to soiled wrappers. Very good indeed. Item #1733
"KING JESUS SAITH : LET US DRINK AT CHRISTMAS TIME TO ALL THAT DWELL BY GREAT TOM CHIME"
First edition of Catholic Tales and Christian Songs—Dorothy L. Sayers's scarce second book—a collection of Oxford poems printed in an edition of 1000 copies. Illustrated with an "Alpha & Omega" design of a crowned Christ on the Cross by Gabriel Pippet.
The daughter of a clergyman (the Rev. Henry Sayers), Dorothy Leigh Sayers graduated from Somerville College, the women's college at Oxford University. She contributed to the popular anthology, Oxford Poetry 1915, alongside J.R.R. Tolkien's first poem, Goblin Feet. "This is the first time Sayers's path crossed with that of the Inklings; it would not be the last" (Zaleski and Zaleski). Oxford Poetry and Catholic Tales and Christian Songs were both printed for Basil Blackwell of Oxford—for whom Sayers worked briefly as a publisher's assistant. The title is derived from the verse by Hilaire Belloc: "Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell, / A Catholic tale have I to tell, / And a Christian song have I to sing / While all the bells in Arundel ring."
This volume of verse concludes with two early plays ("The Mocking of Christ: A Mystery" and "The House of the Soul: A Lay"). The final poem, A Carol for Oxford, echoes Belloc: "Let us sing the fairest town that is in all Your earthly crown / Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell / To the Bells of Oxenford!" The colophon ("Printed at the Vincent Works, Oxford, and finished in September in the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ MDCCCCXVIII") is illustrated with another fine woodcut. See Barbara Reynolds. Dorothy Sayers: Her Life and Soul; Zaleski and Zaleski. The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings; Colleen B. Gilbert. A Bibliography of the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers, A2.
Price: $300.00