FOUR UNRECORDED COPIES.
The Pear Tree Press, Flansham, Sussex, 1927. Unrecorded. 8vo. 31pp. Three in contemporary pattern paper with title label to front, one unbound. Two with ink corrections and errata tipped in verso to first poem, one with pencil correction, one uncorrected. Wraps bumped and marked; all edges untrimmed.
Settle, A. Towers. Married Verses
Alfred Towers Settle (d.1925) was an English barrister, and husband of fashion journalist & editor Alison Settle, OBE (1891-1980). The couple became engaged in 1914, marrying four years later at the end of the First World War. Alfred would die just seven years later, from tuberculosis, in 1925.
While not a published poet, Alfred appears to have authored a legal text The Law of Public Entertainments (1915). Alison likely arranged for these verses to be privately printed to commemorate her husband. The poems are an intimate portrayal of a deeply loving marriage and family life, Alfred largely dedicating each poem to Alison or their children Margaret (Meg), and John. Some others included were perhaps selected to bear witness to Alfred’s life in some more permanent way: A Corollary to Kipling’s: The Departure. Alison was the editor of British Vogue in the interwar period (1926-1935), bringing in writers including Edith Sitwell and Virginia Woolf into the format. Alison wrote several books on fashion, and went on to have a lengthy career as a public figure, a ‘cultural business woman’ and ‘Grande Dame’ of British fashion journalism. She never remarried.
Some titles: To John, Aged a Week or Two; A Prayer for Meg; Our October Baby; Alison’s Christmas Carol from Alfred.