Wilson's Straw Seed by Potocki of Montalk, Count Geoffrey - [1960s]

Francestown: Typographeum, 1981. Limited private press edition. First edition. Hardcover. Fine copy. Photographs by the author. 8vo. Linen cloth. Printed label on back-strip (spare label tipped in). Pp. 60. Frontispiece and two plates, mounted. 100 copies hand-set, printed letterpress and bound by R. T. Risk. Issued without a dust-jacket. Photographs by the author. This is an account of three visits made by the author to the Villa Vigoni, the Provenal home of the eccentric private press printer and poet, Count Potocki of Montalk. It tells why the visits happened, how the author became involved in the Potockian drama, and what led up to the inevitable quarrel. It also touches on such interesting matters as the villainy of the Archbishop of Cant, why nobody is talking about Dylan Thomas and Caitlin Macnamara, the importance of what was said at one of Christina Foyle's literary luncheons, and why the Princess Carmen de Bourbon preferred to pull out grape stumps. The author writes: "It… Read More

Draguignan: The Mélissa Press, 1968 Book. Good. Hardcover. 29, [7] pages. In the original boards with cloth spine. Printed paper labels to the front board and the spine. Some marks and fading. With previous owner's book label to the front pastedown and their signature and date and place of purchase in ink to the front free end paper. Signed by the author to the rear of the title page. Poorly inked in places..

As issued, but generally poor to good. This collection was gathered by Terry Risk who visited Count Potocki in the early 1970s at his home, the Villa Vigoni, near Draguignan in the south of France. It includes a number of his printed works, all the letters back and forth, letters (some in photocopy) to other people, magazine articles by or about him, four typed unpublished manuscripts, a block of linotype for one of his cards, a collection of photographs, copies of a number of legal documents, and one broadside which he always regarded as one of the most significant gestures of his life. A partial list of the items includes: The Blood Royal of England (1966), Dog\\\'s Eggs (1971), The Fifth Columnist (1960), Lordly Lovesongs (1931), Meillerie (1972), Prison Poems (1933), Snobbery With Violence (1932), Whited Sepulchres (1936), and Wild Oats (1927). Many of these are in severely limited editions and/or are signed by him. The manuscripts are essentially autobiographical. The letters include those to… Read More