"Memoirs Of A Fox-Hunting Man" 1977 SASSOON, Siegfried
$250
SASSOON, Siegfried
HOGARTH, Paul [drawings by]
[284] pp.
Curwen Press
Limited Edition of sixteen hundred copies. This copy is number 1237 and is signed by the artist
1977
10 1/4" x 7 3/8"
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928 by Faber and Faber. Originally published anonymously, it went on to become a bestseller, and won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Background
Prior to its publication, Siegfried Sassoon's reputation rested entirely on his poetry, mostly written during and about World War I. Only ten years after the war ended, after some experience of journalism, did he feel ready to branch out into prose. So uncertain was he of the wisdom of this move that he elected to publish Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man anonymously. It is a depiction of his early years presented in the form of an autobiographical novel, with false names being given to the central characters, including Sassoon himself, who appears as "George Sherston". Sassoon was motivated to write the work by a war incident, when a fox was loose in the trenches and one of his friends shot and killed it. However, the book draws heavily on his pre-war life, with riding and hunting being among the favourite pastimes of the author.