A presentation copy, inscribed to Henry Head “with warmest remembrances June 27 1927” and with an inserted TLS from Walter de la Mare and an ALS from Elfrida de la Mare.
Henry Head and W.H. Rivers famously worked with soldiers with brain injuries in London during WW1; Sassoon was perhaps their most famous wounded charge and became a friend to the pair. Head moved in literary as well as scientific circles, and wrote poetry (including Destroyers and Other Verses, published in 1919). His wife, Ruth (née Mayhew), wrote both fiction and non-fiction, and they had many literary friends, including de la Mare.
De la Mare’s letter (1/2 page 8vo, 13 Sussex Place, 28 June 1927) accompanies the book: “This is a rather ancient book now, but would you give me the great pleasure of accepting it with my best wishes”. The letter also mentions their mutual friend, Sassoon (“I was very sorry to hear from Siegfried Sassoon some little time ago of your illness”), and of the pleasure he, de la Mare, takes in Head’s company (“I shall always vividly remember the talk we had”). Elfrida de la Mare’s letter is to “Lady Head” (2 pages 8vo, 13 Sussex Place, 6 July [likely 1927]), mentioning de la Mare’s health and recent operation. She also writes how “yours was the first letter that I was able to read to him & he was wonderfully cheered by it”.
Label faded, corners and edges bumped and rubbed, light foxing to endpapers.
