A collection of 114 volumes from the library of the poet and writer Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). These nineteenth and twentieth century books came from the Sotheby's sale of 18 July 1991 and reflect Sassoon's wide ranging interests in poetry, literature and book collecting. Many of them are presentation copies from the authors and have Sassoon's annotations or extra material inserted. A few of the books include manuscript drafts of unpublished poems. Sassoon was an undergraduate at Clare College 1905–07, and was made an Honorary Fellow in 1953. His copy of W.J. Harrison's book of that year, Notes on the masters, fellows, scholars and exhibitioners of Clare College, Cambridge (1953), is in the collection, along with a couple of eighteenth-century prints of the college and some modern postcards.
The collection complements the Library's fine holdings of Sassoon papers in the Manuscripts Department and printed material in collections such as that of the publisher, typographer and poet Sir Francis Meynell (1891–1975) and, most notably, the surgeon and bibliographer Sir Geoffrey Keynes. Keynes helped Sassoon with the production of a number of his publications from the 1930s to the 1950s, and in 1962 published a bibliography of Sassoon's works. As well as the rare printed editions of Sassoon, the Keynes collection inculdes correspondence and the manuscripts that Sassoon had inherited from Theo Bartholomew—these are held in the Manuscripts Department.
References and further reading:
- 'Books and manuscripts from the library of Siegfried Sassoon, M.C., C.B.E.', in English literature and history (London, Sotheby's, 18 July 1991), pp. 10–117