CuriositiesWe were all chuffed when a colleague brought in this book she had been given "with deep affection" for her birthday, not far off St Valentine's Day. It's called Love, and it's a compendium of more than 700 love letters, poems, passages in prose, plays, songs, sonnets, quotations . . . with a lot of academic, but erudite pondering in between by the once-fashionable English poet, Walter de la Mare.
It was first published in 1943 by Faber & Faber, and of its illustrations it says in a quaint, old-fashioned way, "the decorations are by Barnett Freedman". It was reprinted at least six times, as far as we can tell on the ABE book website, where there are several copies available, in different states of repair, starting at €2.75. You can't even buy an apple these days for €2.75, and here's a book that will work a charm on your bedside table for years to come if you are lucky.
Walter de la Mare's most popular compilation, published in 1939, has one of the longest titles in non-academic publishing history: Behold, This Dreamer! Of Reverie, Night, Sleep, Dream, Love-Dreams, Nightmare, Death, The Unconscious, The Imagination, Divination, The Artist, And Kindred Subjects.
That about covers everything, doesn't it? Especially "kindred subjects". You'll find multiple copies of both Loveand Behold This Dreamer!from abe.books.co.uk and on amazon.com, if not at your local second-hand bookseller. Patsey Murphy