The Criterion, A Quarterly Review (Vol. 1, No. 1).
R. Cobden-Sanderson, 1922. First edition, first printing. Tan paper wrappers, text in black and red. Softcover. Shakespeare and Company bookplate, light rubbing, moderate wrinkling and wear to edges, with a couple faint tide marks. Internally clean and crisp, cover still bright. Still very good to near fine, In custom clamshell case. Item #213496
Previously owned by Shakespeare and Company––renowned Paris bookshop owned and operated by Sylvia Beach. Original Shakespeare and Company bookplate adhered to inside front cover.
This is the inaugural issue of the quarterly British literary magazine, started and edited by T.S. Eliot. The Criterion ran from October 1922 - January 1939.
This first issue was only printed in 600 copies and most prominently features the first appearance of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land"––widely regarded as one of his most important literary works of the 20th century (particularly in the modernist movement).
This issue also includes the first English translation of Dostoevsky's "Plan of a Novel". This translation (by S.S. Koteliansky and Virginia Woolf) also appeared later that month in "Stravrogin's Confession and The Plan of the Life of a Great Sinner" (published by Hogarth Press). This "plan" was confiscated by the Russian government and released to the public in 1921, upon which it was translated cooperatively by Koteliansky and Woolf.
Also appearing in this issue is "Dullness" by George Saintsbury; "The Legend of Tristram and Isolt, I" by T. Sturge Moore; "The Victim" by May Sinclair; "German Poetry of To-Day" by Hermann Hesse; "Ulysses" by Valery Larbaud.
Price: $2,500.00