The Publications of A. J. A. Symons

Abstract

This article seeks to record the various writings of A. J. A. Symons (1900–1941). While best known for his biography, The Quest for Corvo (1934) Symons wrote widely on biography and on bibliographical and bibliophilic matters. He also made many contributions to the various publications of the First Edition Club, of which he was Director. In addition, in his later years he wrote extensively on food and wine. The range of his publications indicates the steadily widening extent of his interests in his brief life.

The posthumous reputation of A. J. A. Symons (1900–1941) depends on a single book. His biography of Frederic Rolfe, The Quest for Corvo, published in 1934, gained him a literary prominence that has meant that his other writings have been largely ignored.¹ Symons was considerably more than a one-book phenomenon. And much of his achievement, curtailed though it was by his early death, grew out of his ties to the worlds of bibliography and bibliophily. Even The Quest for Corvo drew its crucial impetus from his friendship with the book dealer, Christopher Millard, who provided him with the Venice Letters that initiated his quest. Millard was also the bibliographer (under the pseudonym Stuart Mason) of Oscar Wilde, another subject of Symons’s biographical interests.² The First Edition Club that he founded in 1921, was an important focus for his energies for much of his adult life. It was under the auspices of the Club that he produced his Bibliography of the First Editions of Books by William Butler Yeats (1924), the first bibliography of the poet. This demonstrates a clear grasp of formal aspects of bibliographical description. Title-page transcriptions are in full, with line breaks marked by a double vertical rule (‘||’). There are details of format, page size, pagination, price, signatures, paper, binding, and number of copies printed. It offers a systematic descriptive approach to its subject that was particularly striking at a time when methods and standards of bibliographical description were not clearly established. It is a considerable achievement for someone in his early twenties with little formal education or training.³

Although Symons published no further books of a bibliographical kind he clearly had a role in many of the First Edition Club publications. He was also a frequent contributor to various journals on bibliographical matters. He wrote columns for the Spectator (1924) and the Saturday Review (1925– 26) that show the range of his interest in book collecting and his desire to reach a wide audience. His later observations often appeared in the Book-Collector’s Quarterly (BCQ), the periodical he co-edited with Desmond Flower through its seventeen numbers from 1930 to 1935. In addition to his signed articles and reviews Symons was responsible for the unsigned editorial notes.⁴ His contributions reveal a range of bibliographical interests, some of which are reflected in more than one of his writings. For example, his discussion of the question of ‘Edition and Impression’ in BCQ, V (January–March 1932), 1–8 is further expressed in some of his published letters at around the same time.⁵ His lengthy review of John Carter and Graham Pollard’s An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets (1934), ‘The Nineteenth Century Forgeries’, in BCQ, XV (July–September 1934), 1–16, is his most extensive discussion of a subject about which he also wrote elsewhere.⁶

Typography and book design were other recurrent interests, both in historical and contemporary terms. His fullest examination of their significance comes in his article ‘An Unacknowledged Movement in Fine Printing: The Typography of the Eighteen-Nineties’, in The Fleuron, 7 (1930), 83– 119.⁷ It chiefly examines two publishers, Elkin Matthews and John Lane, and on their ‘subordination of artist to printer … to make the book a balanced and harmonious whole’ (p. 308). He moves beyond typography to consider ‘the employment of the artist by means of the line-block’ (p. 310) in particular on the work of Aubrey Beardsley and Charles Ricketts, the latter’s being ‘the most remarkable of all those with which we will treat’ (p. 317), although James Whistler, Laurence Housman, Herbert Horne and Selwyn Image are also examined. Symons also stresses the importance of four printing houses: T. and A. Constable of Edinburgh, the Chiswick Press, Ballantyne, and Hanson and Spottiswoode. The analysis is complemented by frequent illustrations.

Symons’s interest in book design found wider expression. He produced regular, probably annual pamphlets describing the fifty best books of the year between 1928 and 1940. These were supplemented by various articles, some limited in focus, as with his ‘The English and American Fifty Books of 1928’, in Penrose’s Annual (1930), ‘Fifty British Books of the Year’, in Publishers’ Weekly (1930), and ‘Book Design in this Year: Illustration – Typography – Binding’, in The Studio (1935). Other articles were more general in scope, as in ‘The Art of the Book in Great Britain’, in The Studio (1934). More specific subjects that concerned him included bookplates,⁸ book jackets,⁹ typography,¹⁰ and the work of the designer and illustrator, Edward Bawden.¹¹

It is not possible to make large claims for Symons’s bibliographical interests. His bibliography of Yeats was a pioneering study. Occasional articles, like that in The Fleuron on 1890s publishing, have been influential. And his comments on modern printing and book design often suggest an alert engagement with contemporary trends. But the promise of such writings was limited, not just by his early death, but also by the growing range of his interests and their attendant problems. His involvement with the affairs of the First Edition Club involved him in often complex financial difficulties. And in his later years his bibliographical interests competed not just with his biographical ones, but also with his involvement with the Wine and Food Society, which he founded with André Simon in 1934. Simon was the sole editor of its quarterly, Wine and Food, but Symons made a number of contributions to the early numbers, his last in 1939. Such preoccupations meant that his most ambitious bibliographical project, his Bibliography of the Works of the Writers and Book Illustrators of the Eighteen-Nineties together with Short Biographies, presumably an outgrowth of his An Anthology of ‘Nineties’ Verse (1928), never proceeded beyond a prospectus.¹² But bibliography, in the broadest terms, is the most recurrent of the range of his interests, even though not the one for which he is best known.

Since the record below is a list I do not follow the conventions of descriptive bibliography.¹³ Title pages are transcribed verbatim and italicized; they do not normally reflect the capitalization or typography of the originals.¹⁴ Pagination, but not format, is given for books. When they occur, dust jackets are noted (‘D/j’) but not described. Reprints are not generally recorded, except when an article, or occasionally a longer separately published item, for example, Emin, the Governor of Equatoria (1928), was sub-sequently published in a book. Nor are various published catalogues of Symons’s books or papers, or posthumous collections of letters to him, or prospectuses or trial or dummy editions recorded. Works privately printed for Symons that do not contain contributions by him are listed at the end of the appendix.

Abbreviations

 
• BCQ

  Book Collector’s Quarterly

 
• D/j

  Dust jacket

 
• Saturday Review

  Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art

 
• TLS

  Times Literary Supplement

 
• W&F

  Wine and Food

 
• Woolf

  Cecil Woolf, A Bibliography of Frederick Rolf Baron Corvo, 2nd edn, revised (London: Hart-Davis, 1973)

Footnotes

APPENDIX

The Published Writings of A. J. A. Symons¹⁵

1922

Bibliographical Catalogue of the First Loan Exhibition. London: First Edition Club, 1p22. Pp. xii, 178. Limited to 500 numbered copies. Contains an unpaginated ‘Prefatory Note’ signed ‘A. J. A. Symons’ before the text.

‘First Edition Collectors’. New Statesman, 17 June 1922, 292.

William Hazlitt. A Reply to Z. London: First Edition Club, 1923. Pp. 40. Contains an unpaginated Note signed ‘A. J. A. Symons’s before the text. Limited to 300 numbered copies.

‘The Bibliography of Meredith’. TLS, 21 June 1923, 422. Letter. ‘The Bibliography of Meredith’. TLS, 12 July 1923, 472. Letter.

A Bibliography of the First Editions of Books by William Butler Yeats. London: The First Edition Club, 1924. Pp. viii, 46. Printed at the Curwen Press. Limited to 500 numbered copies. D/j.

Claude Lovat Fraser. Sixty-three Unpublished Designs. [With note by A. J. A. Symons]. London: The First Edition Club, n.d. [November 1924]. Pp.[xii] + 66 (rectos only). Printed at the Curwen Press. Limited to 500 copies.

‘Book Collector’s Notes’. Spectator, 5 April 1924, 540. ‘Book Collector’s Notes’. Spectator, 3 May 1924, 708.

‘Book Collector’s Notes: Lovat Fraser Exhibition’. Spectator, 7 June 1924, 916. ‘Book Collector’s Notes: Private Press’. Spectator, 4 July 1924, 13.

‘Book Collector’s Notes’. Spectator, y August 1924, 190. ‘Book Collector’s Notes’. Spectator, 6 September 1924, 319. ‘The Angrians’. TLS, 31 July 1924, 477. Letter.

Bibliographical Catalogue of First Editions Proof Copies & Manuscripts of Books by Lord Byron Exhibited at the fourth exhibition held by the First Edition Club January 1p25. [London:] Curwen Press, Printed for the First Edition Club, 1925. Pp. xvii, 97. Symons signed ‘Acknowledgements’ (p. ix) and ‘Prefatory Note’ (pp. xi– xii). Limited to 500 numbered copies.

H. D. Lowry 186p–1p06. Privately printed: [London [?],1925.] [A memoir and bibliography.] 8 pp.

Ambrose Bierce, Ten Tales. London: First Edition Club, 1925. Pp. xiv, 136. Symons’s contributions were ‘Acknowledgements’ (p. [v]) and ‘Introduction’ (pp. [vii]–xiv).

‘Francis Adams’. TLS, 3 September 1925, 569. Letter.

‘Aubrey Beardsley and Max Beerbohm’. TLS, 3 December 1925, 835. Letter.

Thirty bindings described by G. D. Hobson, selected from the First Edition Club’s seventh exhibition, held at 25 Park Lane, by permission of Sir Philip Sassoon, bart. London: The First Edition Club, 1926. Pp. xii + 68. Symons contributed ‘Acknowledgements’, p. v. Limited to 600 copies.

‘The Connoisseur: Some First Editions’. Saturday Review, 11 December 1926, 739– 40.

‘J. A. Symonds’s Books’. TLS, 29 April 1926, 323. Letter.

Frederick Rolfe Baron Corvo. Read at the Four Hundred and Eighteenth Meeting of the Sette of Odd Volumes Held at the Royal Adelaide Gallery on the twenty-third day of October, MCMXXVI. London: Curwen Press, 1927. Privately printed opuscula of the Sette of Odd Volumes, no. 81. Pp. [iv], 40. Limited to 199 copies. The manuscript of this is now Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng 921.4. Reprinted in Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 10–25. Woolf B11.

‘The Connoisseur: J. A. Symonds and Others’. Saturday Review, 8 January 1927, 58–59.

‘The Connoisseur: Bindings and First Editions’. Saturday Review, 12 February 1927, 246.

‘The Connoisseur: The Ashley Library’. Saturday Review, 19 March 1927, 446, 448. ‘The Connoisseur: Bibliographical Terms’. Saturday Review, 16 April 1927, 610. ‘The Connoisseur: New Bibliographies’. Saturday Review, 7 May 1927, 715–16.

An Anthology of ‘Nineties’ Verse. Compiled and Edited by A. J. A. Symons. London: Elkin Mathews & Marrot, 1928. Pp. xxi, 176. Symons signed ‘Editor’s Note’ (p. vii); ‘Bibliographical Note’ (p. ix); ‘Introduction’ (pp. xvii–xxi).

Emin, the Governor of Equatoria. London: The Fleuron, 1928. Pp. 47. Limited to 300 copies. Reprinted in Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 26–46.

‘Frederick Baron Corvo’. Life and Letters, 1, July, no. 2 (1928), 81–101. Woolf C114. ‘Books on Printing’. TLS, 8 March 1928, 170. Letter.

An Episode in the Life of the Queen of Sheba rediscovered by A. J. A. Symons. [London?, 1929]: Privately printed for A. Ehrman and A. J. A. Symons. Pp. 12. Limited to 150 copies.

A True Recital of the Procedure of the first Banquet held by the Corvine Society, June 27th, 1p2p, at the Ambassador club. [London:] ‘Imprimatur Magister Magn. Soc. Corv.’ Pp. [iv], 26. Text of speeches by Shane Leslie, A. J. A. Symons and C. H.

C. Pirie-Gordon.

‘Introduction’. A Catalogue of the Fifty Books of the Year 1p28, [p. 3]. [London]: The First Edition Club, 1929. Pp. 12. Not paginated.

‘Tradition in Biography’. Tradition and Experiment in Present-Day Literature. Addresses Delivered at the City Literary Institute. London: Oxford University Press, 1929, pp. 149–60. D/j. Reprinted in Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 1–y.

‘The Work of the First Edition Club’. Penrose’s Annual, 31 (1929), 25–27.

‘Edgar Allan Poe’. Life and Letters, 2 (March), no. 10 (1929), 163–78. Reprinted in

Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 47–58.

A True Recital of the Procedure of the second Banquet held by the Corvine Society,

12 December 1p2p, at the Ambassador Club. [London:] ‘Imprimatur Magister Magn. Soc. Corv’. 1930. Pp. 26. Text of speeches by Shane Leslie and Symons.

‘Prefatory Note’. A Catalogue of Recent French Books exhibited by The First Edition Club. London: The First Edition Club, 1930, p. [iii]. Pp. [iv], 17.

[Prefatory Note to] Ambrose Bierce, Battle Sketches. London: The First Edition Club, 1930. Pp. 88. 350 copies.

‘Acknowledgements’ [p. v]; ‘Note’ [p. vii]. The Book of Signs. London: The First Edition Club, 1930. Pp. [viii], 104. Limited to 500 copies.

‘The English and American Fifty Books of 1928’. Penrose’s Annual, 32 (1930), 23– 32.

‘Fifty British Books of the Year’. Publishers’ Weekly, 118 (1930), 957–62.

‘An Episode in the Life of the Queen of Sheba’. Farrago, 3, October 1930, 183–89. ‘An Unacknowledged Movement in Fine Printing: The Typography of the Eighteen-Nineties’. The Fleuron, 7 (1930), 83–119. Reprinted in Francis Meynell & Herbert Simon, eds, The Fleuron Anthology (London: E. Benn, 1973), pp. 310–26. ‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, I (December 1930–February 1931), v–viii.¹⁶ Unsigned. ‘The Book-Collector’s Apology’. BCQ, 1 (December 1930–February 1931), 45–56. ‘The Anatomy of Bibliomania’. Review of Holbrook Jackson, The Anatomy of Bibliomania. BCQ, I (December 1930–February 1931), 93–96.

‘Mr George Moore’. TLS, 27 February 1930, 166. Letter.

‘Introduction’. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Fifty Books Published during 1p30 and Selected by a Committee of Members of the First Edition Club, pp. [iii–iv]. London: [The First Edition Club], 1931. Pp. 19.

‘Introduction’. An Exhibition Of The Fifty Best Books 1p30. London: [The First Edition Club, 1931], p. [3]. Pp. ii, 18.

‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, II (March–May 1931), vii–viii. Unsigned. ‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, III (March–May 1931), ix–xiv. Unsigned.

‘Point Counter-Point’. Review of Percy H. Muir, Points, 1874–1p30. Being Extracts from a Bibliographer’s Note-Book. BCQ, III (June–August 1931), 82–87.

‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, IV (October–December 1931), vii–viii. Unsigned.

‘Notes on Sales: “Edition” and “Impression”‘. TLS, 17 September 1931, 712. Letter. ‘Oscar Wilde’. London Mercury, 24 (August 1931), 361. Letter.

‘A Life of Oscar Wilde’. TLS, 25 June 1931, 510. Letter.

‘Introduction’. Catalogue Of An Exhibition Of Fifty Books Published During 1p31 Produced In Great Britain And Selected By A Committee Of Members Of The First Edition Club London, pp. [v–vi]. London: [First Edition Club], 1932. Pp. viii, 16. ‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, V (January–March 1932), xv–xvi. Unsigned.

‘Edition and Impression’. BCQ, V (January–March 1932), 1–8. ‘Club Notes’. BCQ, VI (April–June 1932), xi–xvi. Unsigned. ‘Mise en Page’. BCQ, VI (April–June 1932), 45.

‘“Issue” and “State”’. BCQ, VI (April–June 1932), 79–82

‘Club Notes’. BCQ, VII (July–September 1932), xiii–xvi. Unsigned.

‘Editorial and Club Notes’. BCQ, VIII (October–December 1932), xiv–xvi. Unsigned.

‘Two Reformers’. BCQ, VIII (October–December 1932), 56–59.

‘On Selecting the Fifty Books of the Year’. BCQ, VIII (October–December 1932), 84–88.

‘Bibliography’. London Mercury, 25 (1932), 481. Letter about ‘edition’ and ‘impression’.

‘The First Editions Club’. TLS, 23 June 1932, 464. Letter. ‘Nouns of Multitude’. Sunday Times, y October 1932, 14. Letter.

H. M. Stanley. Great Lives 13. London: Duckworth, 1933. D/j. Pp. 128.

‘A Foreword’. The Mersham & District Amateur Opera Society programme for their performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience, y–11 February. Kensington: The Favil Press, 1933. 6 pp.; not paginated; Symons’s ‘Foreword’ is on p. [2].¹⁷ ‘Introduction’. Catalogue Of An Exhibition Of Fifty Books Published During 1p32 Produced in Great Britain And Selected By A Committee of Members Of The First

Edition Club London, p. [v]. London: [First Edition Club], 1933. Pp. viii, 16. ‘The Modern First Edition Market’. Fortnightly Review, 133 (1933), 521–22. ‘Editorial and Club Notes’. BCQ, IX (January–March 1933), xiii–xvi. Unsigned. ‘Editorial and Club Notes’. BCQ, X (April–June 1933), xv–xvi. Unsigned. ‘Editorial and Club Notes’. BCQ XI (July–September 1933), xiii–xvi. Unsigned. ‘Old Title-page Borders’. BCQ, XI (July–September), 87–88.

‘Editorial and Club Notes’. BCQ, XII (October–December 1933), xv–xvi. Unsigned. ‘Charles Ricketts’. BCQ, XII (October–December 1933), 41–42.

The Quest for Corvo. Pp. [xii], 293. London: Cassell, 1934. D/j. Woolf B14

Is it Wise? Single sheet, printed on recto only, containing verses about the exposure of T. J. Wise’s forgeries; 25 copies. With the subtitle and imprint ‘Written at Weppons, September, 1934. | Printed by Wests at Steyning’. ‘Weppons’ was the house of Philip Gosse; this was one of a series of eight poems ‘Weppons of Peace’ by Gosse’s friends and guests, printed on separate sheets. A copy, part of the full set, is in Cambridge University Library (S721.c.93.100). A copy previously owned by

Wilfred Partington, was described in the exhibition catalogue, Wise After the Event. A catalogue of Books, Pamphlets, Manuscripts and Letters relating to Thomas James Wise displayed in an Exhibition in Manchester Central Library September 1p64, ed. by G. E. Haslam (Manchester, 1964), p. 63, and was doubtless the copy that formed part of lot 516 of the Wiseiana sale of Sir Maurice Pariser at Sotheby’s, 4–5 December 1967 (£95 to House of El Dieff). Another copy is in the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds (BC MS 19c Gosse F-2 WEP [BOX 6]. A further copy, then owned by Stuart B. Schimmel is recorded in the exhibition catalogue, Crime & the Literati: Fraud and Forgery in Literature, held at the Peabody Institute Library, Baltimore, May & June 1962, item 161. The copy noted in Simon C. W. Hewett, A.

J. A. Symons (Grolier Club, 2018), p. 37 may be one of those noted above. There are also copies in the Butler Library, Columbia University, New York (PR6037.Y55 I7 1934g) and in the Beinecke Library, New Haven, CT (BrSides Box 2001 25). On this poem see Percy Muir, Minding my Own Business (London: Chatto & Windus, 1956), p. 98 who quotes the opening lines. A reprint of ‘About 125’ copies was issued in 1979 as a keepsake on the occasion of the Typophiles Christmas luncheon for Vera & Bill Filby (Tallahassee, FLA: The Fonthill Press).

‘Introduction’. Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo, The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole.

London: Cassell, 1934, pp. v–x. D/j. Pp. x, 299. Woolf A 10.

‘Frederic William Serafino Austin Lewis Mary Rolfe, Baron Corvo’. P. H. Muir. Points: Second Series 1866–1p34. London: Constable, 1934, pp. yy–103. Woolf B 15. ‘Introduction’. Catalogue Of An Exhibition Of Fifty Books Published During 1p33 Produced In Great Britain And Selected By A Committee Of Members Of The First Edition Club London, p. [v]. London: [First Edition Club], 1934. Pp. viii, 16.

‘The Art of the Book in Great Britain’. The Studio, 107 (1934), 227–40. ‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, XIII (January–March 1934), xiii–xvi. Unsigned. ‘Post-War English Bookbinding’. BCQ, XIII (January–March 1934), 1–6.

‘Modern English Bindings at the First Edition Club Reviewed’. BCQ, XIII (January– March 1934), 81–86.

‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, XIV (April–June 1934), xi–xii. Unsigned. ‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, XV (July–September 1934), xii–xvi. Unsigned.

‘The Nineteenth Century Forgeries’. Review of John Carter and Graham Pollard, An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth-Century Pamphlets. BCQ, XV (July–September 1934), 1–16.

‘Notes on the Fifty Books of the Year’. BCQ, XV (July–September 1934), 59–67. ‘Shelley Fragments’. Review of C. E. Shelley-Rolls and Roger Ingpen, eds, Verse and Prose from the Manuscripts of Percy Bysshe Shelley. BCQ, XV (July–September 1934), 89–90. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, XVI (October–December 1934), xiii–xvi. Unsigned. ‘Alexandre Dumas, Pére’. Review of F. W. Reed, A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas. BCQ, XVI (October–December 1934), 86–87. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Two Unusual Books’. Review of Monroe Wheeler, A Typographical Commonplace Book & Katherine Anne Porter, French Song Book. BCQ, XVI (October–December 1934), 87–88. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Bookplates Since the War’. Sunday Times, 11 November 1934, p. 36.

‘Many Voices, Many Men’. Sunday Times, 25 November 1934, p. 23. Extract from an address by Symons.

‘Madeira’. W&F, no. 1 (Spring 1934), 48–49.

‘Memorable Meals. III. April; IV. May’. W&F, no. 2 (Summer 1934), 50–51, 51–54. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Memorable Meals. I. June’. W&F, no.3 (Autumn 1934), 68–69. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’ ‘Baron Corvo’. Sunday Times, 11 February 1934, 14. Letter.

‘Correspondence’. London Mercury, 30 (August 1934), 356. Letter about a review of The Quest for Corvo.

‘Correspondence’. London Mercury, 30 (August 1934), 358. A further letter about

The Quest for Corvo.

Frederic Rolfe, Baron Corvo. Hubert’s Arthur. Being certain curious documents found among the literary remains of Mr. N. C., here produced by Prospero and Caliban. London: Cassell, 1935. D/j. Pp. iv, 453. Symons contributed ‘Introduction’ (pp. [1]–3). Woolf B 16.

‘Introduction’. Catalogue of an Exhibition of FIFTY BOOKS published during 1p34 produced in Great Britain and selected by a committee of embers of the First Edition Club London, p. [3]. London: [First Edition Club], 1935. Pp. 24.

‘The Fifty Books of the Year’. Penrose’s Annual, 37 (1935), 50–52.

‘Memorable Meals. IV. January’. W&F, no. 5 (Spring 1935), 64–66. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Editorial Notes’. BCQ, XVII (April–June 1935), vii–viii. Unsigned. ‘The Hand Press’. BCQ, XVII (April–June 1935), 24–28.

‘Two Publishers Speak’. BCQ, XVII (April–June 1935), 70–74. Review of Geoffrey Faber, A Publisher Speaking & G. Howe, compiler, Of the Making of CXXV Books. A Publisher’s Bibliography.

‘More Points.’ Review of P. H. Muir, Points: Second series, 1866–1p34. BCQ, XVII (April–June 1935), 78–80. Signed ‘A.J.A. S.’

‘Nineties Illustration.’ Review of James Thorpe, English Illustration The Nineties. BCQ, XVII (April–June 1935), 80–81. Signed ‘A.J.A. S.’

‘The Overbrook Press.’ BCQ, XVII (April–June 1935), 83–84. Signed ‘A.J.A. S.’ ‘Pleasures of Collecting’. The Listener, y October 1935, 606.

‘Mark of the Best: Does Your Label Stand the Test?’ Commercial Art and Industry, 19 (July–December 1935), 215–30

‘Ex Libris: The Mark of Possession’. The Studio, 110 (1935), 311–16.

‘Book Design in this Year: Illustration — Typography — Binding’. The Studio, 110 (1935), 319–23.

‘On Curwen Press Books’. Curwen Press Newsletter, 8: 4.

‘Memorable Meals. III. May’. W&F, no. 6 (Summer 1935), 61–62. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Appraisal’. Francis Meynell, Desmond Flower, A. J. A. Symons. The Nonesuch Century. An appraisal, a personal note and a bibliography of the first hundred books issued by the Press, 1p23–1p34. Pp. xii, 242. London: Nonesuch Press, 1936,

pp. 1–30. D/j. 750 copies.

The Epicure’s Anthology. Collected by Nancy Quennell. With an essay on the Epicure and the Epicurean by A. J. A. Symons and decorations by Osbert Lancaster. London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1936. Pp. 192. Limited to 150 copies. ‘Introduction’. Fifty Books Selected By The Committee of Members Of The First

Edition Club From Those Published in Great Britain During 1p35 And Exhibited In The Club Rooms 6 Little Russell St., pp. 3–4. London: [First Edition Club], 1936. Pp. 24.

‘A Forgotten Dinner Party’. Fords and bridges [Oxford], 1, 4 February 1936, 12–14. Subsequently published as ‘The Diner-Out’ in Horizon, 4, October 1944 (as below). ‘Preserving the Charm of Finchingfield’. Times, 13 May 1936, 18. This article includes a letter by Symons on this subject.

‘Mr Pickwick’s England’. Review of Walter Dexter & J. W. T. Ley, The Origins of Pickwick. Fortnightly Review, 139 (1936), 625–26.

‘Memorable Meals. III. September’. W&F, no. 12 (Winter 1936), 65–67. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Preface’. Frederick Rolfe, Baron Corvo, The Songs of Meleager. London: The First Edition Club, 1937, p. vii. Pp., xx, 132. Limited to 750 copies. Woolf B 17. ‘Introduction’. The 50 Books Selected By The Committee Of The First Edition Club From Those Published In Great Britain During 1p36 And Exhibited In The Club

Rooms No. 6 Little Russell St. London. [London: The First Edition Club, 1937], pp. 3–4. Pp. 32.

An Announcement of Some Good Books from the First Edition Club 1p36–37. [London: The First Edition Club, n. d., 1937], 8 pp. Unheaded note signed ‘A. J. A. Symons’ [p. 2].

‘The Work of Edward Bawden Designer and Illustrator’. Art and Industry, 22 (April 1937), 154–56.

‘How the Jacket Sells the Book’. Art and Industry, 22 (June 1937), 213–15.

‘Truth in Advertising’. W&F, no. 13 (Spring 1937), 43–44. Review of Francis Downman, Not Claret.

‘Walking in Wessex’. W&F, no. 14 (Summer 1937), 6–20, 22.

‘Memorable Meals. III. April’. W&F, no. 14 (Summer 1937), 62–64. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Memorable Meals. III. July’. W&F, no. 15 (Autumn 1937), 70–72. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’ ‘Memorable Meals. I. August’. W&F, no. 16 (Winter 1937), 76–77. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’ ‘Round the Restaurants. There’s an R in the Month’. Night and Day, 12: 16 September 1937, 27–28. Reprinted in Christopher Hawtree, ed., Night and Day (London: Chatto & Windus, 1985), pp. 132–33.

‘Restaurants. A Tour by A. J. A. Symons’. Night and Day, 18: 28 October 1937, 28. Reprinted in Christopher Hawtree, ed., Night and Day (London: Chatto & Windus, 1985), p. 203.

‘Restaurants: A Tour by A. J. A. Symons’. Night and Day, 25: 16 December 1937,

28. Reprinted in Christopher Hawtree, ed., Night and Day (London: Chatto & Windus, 1985), p. 263.

‘The novelist [on Wyndham Lewis]’. Twentieth century Verse, 6/7 (November/ December 1937), 18–21.

‘Meet the Man Who Forges for Fun’. Daily Mail, 2 December 1937, 11. Article, by

F. G. Prince-White, on Symons’s ability to forge signatures, with numerous quotations and a facsimile of his signature.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS of his Oddshippe Bro. A. J. A. SYMONS (Speculator) Delivered to the Sette of Odd Volumes at its 525th meeting held at the Savoy Hotel on October 18, 1p38. [London]: Curwen Press, 1938. 8pp.

‘Introduction’. Fifty Books Selected By The Committee Of The First Edition Club From Those Published In Great Britain During 1p37 And Exhibited In The Club Rooms No. 6 Little Russell St. [London: The First Edition Club, 1938], pp. 3–4. Pp. 32.

‘First Editions’. John Woollcombe, ed., Practical Planning with Books (London: National Book Council, 1938), p. 33. Pp. 52.

‘English Cheese’. W&F, no. 17 (Spring 1938), 52–54. Review of John Squire,

Cheddar Gorge.

‘Memorable Meals. III. January; V February’. W&F, no. 17 (Spring 1938), 60–61, 63–65. Signed ‘A. J. A. S.’

‘The Detection of a Bibliographic Forgery’. Penrose Annual 40 (1938), 33–37. ‘1920, 1923 and 1924 Clarets’. W&F, no. 18 (Summer 1938), 175–78.

‘Star Chamber Revels’. W&F, no. 18 (Summer 1938), 179–80. Review of Star Chamber Revels. A ‘Satyre’.

‘Memorable Meals. V. March’. W&F, no. 18 (Summer 1938), 196–97. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Types Our Fathers Used’. Review of Nicolete Gray, Nineteenth-Century Ornamented Types and Title Pages. TLS, 1 October 1938, 632. Unsigned.

‘When Club Meets Club …’. W&F, no. 19 (Autumn 1938), 244–48, 250–53. Reprinted in The Saintsbury Club, reissued with additional material and a new introduction by Merlin Holland. Limited to 140 copies. Sonoma, CA: The Rare Wine Company, 1993.

‘Memorable Meals. III. September’. W&F, no. 20 (Winter 1938), 419–22. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

Review of D. Flower & A. N. L. Munby, English Poetical Autographs. Twentieth Century Verse, 14 (December 1938), 139–40.

Review of Holbrook Jackson, The Printing of Books. Signature, 10 (1938), 47–50. ‘Shakespeare and Will Hughes’. TLS, 18 June 1938, 417. Letter.

Unrationed, on your Rational Service. London: Wine and Food Society, 1939. 16pp. On the cover this is ascribed to ‘ALS/AJAS’, that is, André Simon and Symons. Both André Simon, in his autobiography, By Request (London, 1957), p. 120, and Julian Symons in A. J. A. Symons: His Life and Speculations, pp. 218–220, refer to this work under the title, The Unration Book; Symons even quotes from a title page in this form. Simon in the ‘Editorial’ in Wine and Food, 24 (Winter, 1939), 320, also observes that ‘Our first contribution towards the solution of the problem of nutrition in war-time has been the publication of the Unration Book’. But there is no surviving evidence of a work published with this title. Under the heading ‘Unrationed’ in a Times Fourth Leader, 14 December 1939, p. y, a Wine and Food Society publication is referred to as ‘National Rationing: General Unrationed Book’. The title used here is that in the British Library’s catalogue for a copy now recorded as ‘destroyed’ (D-07943.e.44). World Cat records copies with this title in the Special Collections of the State Library of South Australia, in Trinity College, Dublin, and in the National Library of Scotland (which gives the publication date as ‘[1940]’), none of which I have seen. There is another copy reported in The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington (TX357.W76 U6).¹⁸ Simon reports (p. 120) that it was sold for 6d. a copy and that ‘a large quantity had to be pulped’. Some passages are quoted in Julian Symons, A. J. A. Symons: His Life and Speculations (1950), pp. 219–20.

‘Introduction’. fifty books selected by the Committee of the First Edition Club from those published during 1p38 and exhibited in the Club Rooms 6 Little Russell Street. [London: The First Edition Club, 1939], pp. 3–4. Pp. 24.

‘The Necessities of the Printer’s Library’. Penrose Annual, 41 (1939), 51–53. ‘Memorable Meals. IV. January. W&F, no. 21 (Spring 1939), 66–67. Signed ‘A.J.A.S.’

‘Musical Boxes’. The Listener, 10 August 1939, 289.

‘Theodore Hook’. Leonard Russell, ed., English Wits. London: Hutchinson, 1940,

pp. 123–38. D/j. Reprinted in Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 74–90. ‘Introduction’. British Fifty Books Selected By The Committee of the First Edition Club in London From The Books Published during 1p3p. ‘Printed in the United States of America’, 1940, pp. [3–4]. Pp. 16. Symons’s ‘Introduction’ is dated ‘London

1940’. The ‘Acknowledgements’ on p. [4] read: ‘When in the course of events it became impossible for the First Edition Club of London to finance a printed catalogue, the committee was faced with the possibility of having no adequate descriptive material either for the opening of the show or for the travelling exhibits. American friends of the show have rallied strongly to the cause in this emergency,

however. We are deeply indebted to the following for making possible this printed catalogue.’ [A list of names follows.]

‘Theodore Hook Diaries’. Sunday Times, 5 May 1940, p. 6. Letter.

‘Wilde at Oxford’. Horizon, 3 (April 1941), 253–64. Reprinted in Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 145–69, together with the following article.

‘Wilde at Oxford’. Horizon, 3 (May 1941), 336–48.

‘The Diner-Out’. Horizon, 4 (October 1941), 251–58. Reprinted in Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 137–44. Originally published as ‘A forgotten dinner party’ in Fords and bridges, (1936), as above.

1945

‘Irving and the Irvingites’. Horizon, 12 (November 1945), 310–23. Reprinted in

Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 59–73.

1950

Julian Symons. A. J. A. Symons: His Life and Speculations. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1950. D/j. Contains extensive quotation from Symons’s letters.

1964

‘The Tennants of Glenconnor’. London Magazine, 4 (June 1964), 21–35. Reprinted in Essays and Biographies (1969), pp. 91–107.

1969

Essays and biographies. Edited with an Introduction by Julian Symons. London: Cassell, 1969. D/j. This includes the first publication of ‘The Two Lieutenants’ (pp. 108–37) and ‘Oscar Wilde in America’ (pp. 170–90).

1982

A. J. A. Symons to Wyndham Lewis: twenty four letters. Edinburgh: Tragara Press, 1982. Pp. iv, 24. Limited to 120 copies.

1985

Julian Symons. Two Brothers: Fragments of a Correspondence. Edinburgh: Tragara Press, 1985. Limited to 130 copies.

2007

Notes on Oscar Wilde. For an unfinished bibliography of the nineties. Edited by Callum James, from University of Delaware Special Collections MSS/77/2/F19. Portsmouth: Callum James, 2007. Pp. 12. 50 copies issued.

2010

Peyton Skipwith. One Lump or Two? Tea, Twinings and Edward Bawden with Limericks by AJA Symons. Norwich: Mainstone Press, 2010. Symons’s limericks are printed pp. 28–39.

Works privately printed for Symons

Thomas Hardy, Compassion, an ode in celebration of the centenary of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Symons [London: Morland Press], 1924.

Lord Alfred Douglas, Nine Poems. [London, 1926]. Limited to 50 copies. John Gray. Sound. [London, 1926.] Limited to 50 copies.

Frederick Rolfe, The bull against the enemy of the Anglican race. London: printed for A. J. A. Symons at the Curwen Press, 1929. ‘Distributed privately on 27th June 1929 at the first dinner held.’ Limited to 50 copies. Woolf Ay.