The Burden of Tyre; Portraits by Sir Lionel Lindsay
Sydney: Privately Printed by Harry F. Chaplin, 1953. First Edition. Hardcover : unpaginated [46pp.] : frontispiece etching of C.J. Brennan signed and numbered by Lionel Lindsay, second tipped-in portrait of Brennan also by Lindsay : limitation page signed by Harry F. Chaplin : blue cloth boards lettered in gilt and with the poet's initials on top board together with a spear : paper dustwrapper with rectangle window to expose the gilt initials and spear, bordered in blue.
The cloth in the window has faded; dustwrapper is toned and with some spotting to tail of top cover; light foxing throughout. Item #14385
No. 145 of 250 copies for sale (300 copies in total). During his lifetime Brennan published only one of this sequence of fifteen poems. This publication is based on the manuscript copy that Brennan presented to John Le Gay Brereton and which Chaplin later acquired. Parts of the manuscript are reproduced in facsimile. A "thoughtful and controlled protest" against the Boer War, the poems were composed between September 1900 and May 1901, with the exception of XIII which was completed on June 3, 1903.
The frontis profile of the poet was commissioned by Brennan for a collection of his poetry but never used. Chaplin later had Lindsay adapt it to become the bookplate for his Brennan collection. It was then modified again especially for this publication.
Price: $200.00