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LAWRENCE (T.E.) The Odyssey of Homer, [translated by T.E. Lawrence], LIMITED TO 530 COPIES, 2-PAGE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY BRUCE ROGERS tipped-in to rear free endpaper, [Emery Walker, Wilfred Merton and Bruce Rogers], 1932 image 1
LAWRENCE (T.E.) The Odyssey of Homer, [translated by T.E. Lawrence], LIMITED TO 530 COPIES, 2-PAGE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY BRUCE ROGERS tipped-in to rear free endpaper, [Emery Walker, Wilfred Merton and Bruce Rogers], 1932 image 2
LAWRENCE (T.E.) The Odyssey of Homer, [translated by T.E. Lawrence], LIMITED TO 530 COPIES, 2-PAGE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY BRUCE ROGERS tipped-in to rear free endpaper, [Emery Walker, Wilfred Merton and Bruce Rogers], 1932 image 3
Lot 169

LAWRENCE (T.E.)
The Odyssey of Homer, [translated by T.E. Lawrence], LTD TO 530 COPIES, AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY BRUCE ROGERS tipped-in, [1932

10 – 20 March 2025, 12:00 GMT
Online, London, Knightsbridge

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LAWRENCE (T.E.)

The Odyssey of Homer, [translated by T.E. Lawrence], LIMITED TO 530 COPIES, 2-PAGE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY BRUCE ROGERS tipped-in to rear free endpaper, and signed by Rogers on the colophon leaf, 26 woodcut roundels printed in gold and black (including title vignette), bookplate of James Harold Leighton (with variant on upper cover of slipcase), original black morocco by W.H. Smith, gilt-lettered on spine, t.e.g., very slight abrasion at head of spine, original slipcase (rubbed) [O'Brien A144], 4to, [Emery Walker, Wilfred Merton and Bruce Rogers], 1932

Footnotes

A FINE COPY BOUND WITH A LETTER FROM BRUCE ROGERS - "I believe the Bruce Rogers Odyssey is indisputably amongst the most beautiful books ever produced. It is difficult to describe a work of genius. In the Odyssey without tricks or accessory decoration, with a classic austerity akin to the timeless proportions of the Parthenon, with only type and paper and ink, with consummate skill, Rogers created a masterpiece" (Joseph Blumenthal, in Bruce Rogers: A Life in Letters, 1987).

Writing from the Oxford University Press, New York on 22 March 1933 to an unnamed recipient ("Dear Sir") Bruce Rogers informs that "The type used in the Odyssey (English Editions) is called "Centaur" - a design I made many years ago, from Johnson's XV Century face", mentioning that the Metropolitan Museum of Art had used it for a number of years, and that in 1928 he went to England "to supervise its being made for the Langston Monotype Co.". He goes on to write that the Odyssey was set on the Monotype Machines at Cambridge University Press "and afterwards worked over in the Emery Walker works", and further promises that should the recipient send his copy of the book he would "be glad to sign it for you", which he evidently did as the signature on the colophon confirms.

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