AUGUSTUS JOHN. - Poetry London X… edited by Tambimuttu. London: Nicholson & Watson, Editions PL, 1944. First edition, with a hand-written poem by Augustus John on the half-title, 8vo (255 x 174mm.) Drawings by Mervyn Peake, colour plates by Gerald Wilde. (Toning.) Original beige cloth, gilt lettering to spine (bumped to spine ends), dust-jacket designed by Gerald Wilde (some loss to spine ends). Note: 'The Antiquary', a poem by Augustus John, is hand-written on the half-title and dated December, 1944, the date of publication of this book. The poem is also reproduced in facsimile on p.77. Although John would live another sixteen years the poem has a mournful sense of mortality that is relived only by the thought of the 'antiquary' who might read the poem and bring his voice, momentarily, back to life. 'The fond antiquary may disengage/The secret written on a faded Page/And hear again the speech of those who lay/Together in a cabinet of Clay'.