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McCrae, John.
In Flanders Fields.
Publisher: William Briggs/G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Toronto/New York;
Date of Publication: 1919
Stock Code: 7860
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Octavo, pp., ix, [1], 141, [1]. Photographic portrait frontispiece of McCrae, plus 3 plates as called for, including facsimile of an autograph copy of the poem “In Flanders Fields” and facsimile of a sketch by McCrae.Publishers’ blue cloth with gilt titles to spine and upper board, with oval border to titles to upper board. Unclipped printed beige dust-jacket. Slight wear at spine tips and corners otherwise covers clean and bright. Ownership stamp to ffep and a few leaves faintly corner creased (affecting margin only); no annotation or inscriptions other than the alteration of “blow” to “grow” in the first line. Jacket nicked and creased with tape repairs to verso, and associated discolouration; very minor loss at spine tips and top edge. A Very Good copy in Good jacket. Includes “John McCrae: An Essay in Character” by Sir Andrew Macphail. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918) was a Canadian doctor, and poet, who served as consulting physician to the British Armies in France on the Western Front. He fell ill and died from pneumonia in January 1918. McCrae originally wrote “In Flanders fields the poppies grow” as the first line of the poem, but Punch received permission to alter the last word of the line to “blow” and thereafter McCrae used either word himself when inscribing the line. His lasting legacy is of course the eponymous classic verse “In Flanders Fields”, as popular and evocative now as when it was written in 1915 and a standard at ceremonies of Remembrance around the world. £250.00