Dear Clients and Friends,
With characteristically careful and diligent research, our colleague Peter Lewis has delved into important golfing periodicals of the very late 19th and very early 20th centuries to discover and compile a golfing trove of poetic treasures by two British women, Rose Champion de Crespigny and E. Maud Griffiths (and her sisters).
As Peter describes in his Afterword:
Versed in Golf came together in a rather unusual way. When I was working on The Book of St Andrews Links by Andrew Bennett, I became interested in his golf poetry. As part of my research, I decided to look through the early issues of Golf to see if I could find any poems that he might have published in it. Alas, I did not find any. However, one name kept recurring, namely that of Rose Champion de Crespigny. I wondered how many poems she wrote and how that total compared to other poets. There was only one way to find out. I went back to the first issue of Golf in 1890 and worked my way forward until the end of 1910. This confirmed that she was easily the most published poet in Golf/Golf Illustrated in that period and that her last poem had appeared in January 1900.
Originally, Versed in Golf was going to focus solely on Rose but that changed. I was nearing the end of my quest when I came upon the 1909 review of With Club and Caddie in Golf Illustrated. My interest was piqued as I did not have E.M. Griffiths on my list of poets for Golf/Golf Illustrated. I obtained a copy of With Club and Caddie and immediately realized that the “E.M.G.” on my list was E. Maud Griffiths. The acknowledgements at the beginning of the book led me across the Atlantic to Golf (NY). This started me on a second quest to review every issue of Golf (NY) between 1898 and June 1907 in search of poems by Maud and her sisters. I realized that there was a second British woman poet who was just as popular as Rose, but this time mainly in America. So, Versed in Golf was expanded to include Maud and her sisters.
Thus, Andrew Bennett led me to Rose Champion de Crespigny, who in turn led me to E. Maud Griffiths. In a sense, I did not set out to find Rose and Maud. They found me and I hope I have done them justice.”
Here follows below several excerpted pages from Versed in Golf, but let’s first savor some of our friend Rand Jerris’s words from his thoughtful Foreword:
“Critically, this is poetry of the highest caliber. So many of the poems collected here are elegant and powerful, making creative use of language to evoke strong emotions and communicate complex ideas.”
“I’ll confess to being a bit awed by the breadth, quantity and quality of the poems generated by these women in such a brief span of years.”
Our press run is limited to 250 copies, each printed on acid-free paper, bound in cloth and housed in a durable slipcase. Contents include 51 golfing poems by Ms. de Crespigny and 52 golfing poems by Ms. Griffiths and her sisters. The volume contains extensive Commentaries by Mr. Lewis together with comprehensive reference notes and a sequential index of poems catalogued.
Price is £39, plus insured and tracked handling, postage, and shipping.
Shipping weight is 1.2 kilograms.
Best regards,
D. M. Wilson, III
Publisher
Grant Books Ltd
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