The first issue, as per Nelson Smithers, 1899.10. Spine darkened, and covers rather discoloured and slightly worn at edges.
A series of aphoristic essays, all with monosyllabic titles. Their measured archness is sometimes over-ambitious to the point of pretension, but at their best have a winning directness as in “Rush”. “Haste is the negation of dignity. This you will perceive if you go to a railway station and watch late people hurrying to catch a train; which, if they lose, they stand fuddled, mopping their brows, confessed fools in the sight of me. To lose a train after you have strained every nerve to gain it, is one of the great mistakes of life in little. If, on the other hand, you saunter to the place of departure, and, refusing to run, gaze on the train as it glides away with calm eyes, you do not apprize a jeering crowd that you have been defeated. To be leisurely is an act of faith and also an act of liberty … it is not well to acquaint the world that you are eager after anything, for then it looks to see you fall.”
O’Sullivan was, in the 1890s, a wealthy remittance man, and helped Wilde and others - by the 1930s he was himself the subject of charity, and the brilliant essay “Help” speaks elequently as to how “A sense of obligation engenders a sense of hate”.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, in white cloth spine with paper spine label printed in green, and textured paper over boards. Per Nelson, LS, 1899.10, LIMITED to 500 copies on Van Gelder handmade paper. Sims, A.4. Very good copy with spine darkened and some wear to corners.
