On November 4, 1918, just seven days before the end of World War I, the poet Wilfred Owen was killed by German machine-gun fire at the Sambre-Oise Canal. He was twenty-five years old.
Owen left his unpublished works in disarray, and was little known as a poet having published only five poems during his lifetime. Many readers were introduced to Owen through the efforts of his friend and fellow poet, Siegfried Sassoon, who organized and edited the first posthumous collection of Owen's work in 1920. Introducing his friend's work, Sassoon said: "I can only affirm that he was a man of absolute integrity of mind. . . . In the last year of his life, he attained a clear vision of what he needed to say, and these poems survive him as his true and splendid testament." Benjamin Britten, who included nine Owen poems in his War Requiem (1962), considered him "by far our greatest war poet, and one of the most original poets of this century."
Wilfred Owen: Poems is a handmade book, limited to an edition of 50. Set in Weiss, the book is printed on Mohawk Superfine Text, with a hand-sewn linen binding, ribbon bookmark, and linen-over-boards cover.
56 pages, 6 x 9.75 in
Cover photo: © Mel Curtis, "Hungarian Poppies, Study No. II" (detail)
Owen left his unpublished works in disarray, and was little known as a poet having published only five poems during his lifetime. Many readers were introduced to Owen through the efforts of his friend and fellow poet, Siegfried Sassoon, who organized and edited the first posthumous collection of Owen's work in 1920. Introducing his friend's work, Sassoon said: "I can only affirm that he was a man of absolute integrity of mind. . . . In the last year of his life, he attained a clear vision of what he needed to say, and these poems survive him as his true and splendid testament." Benjamin Britten, who included nine Owen poems in his War Requiem (1962), considered him "by far our greatest war poet, and one of the most original poets of this century."
Wilfred Owen: Poems is a handmade book, limited to an edition of 50. Set in Weiss, the book is printed on Mohawk Superfine Text, with a hand-sewn linen binding, ribbon bookmark, and linen-over-boards cover.
56 pages, 6 x 9.75 in
Cover photo: © Mel Curtis, "Hungarian Poppies, Study No. II" (detail)
