Francis Thompson.

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FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and one further plate, being portraits of Thompson, occasional marks to margin, corresponding to the page numbers listed to rear pastedown, these the work of Graham Greene (see below), pp. xi, 232, crown 8vo, original maroon cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, gentle knock to top corner of upper board, dustjacket, slightly nicked and rubbed at extremities, very good. The copy of author Graham Greene, with his ownership inscription to the flyleaf; though Greene does not make annotations, he has noted down nine pages in a list to the rear pastedown, which correspond to his marks to the margins - highlighting various passages, principally regarding Thompson's opium addiction, but also some lines of verse and, in the last example, from Thompson's criticism (this including the very Greeneian statement, 'His sins are virtues which have overshot their mark'). The influence of Thompson on Greene, both Catholic authors, has been observed by various critics - particularly the theme of the pursued sinner in the poet's most famous work, 'The Hound of Heaven', which Greene himself acknowledges by drawing from it the title of his novel 'The Labyrinthine Ways' (the American title of 'The Power and the Glory'). A significant association copy. Seller Inventory # 74237

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