Recently I was given a copy of The Fables of Aesop published by J.L. Carr, which I had not seen before. Another collector then told me that he had a copy. I had seen the name 'Aesop' listed among the titles of small books published by R.D. and J.M. Carr, who took over J.L. Carr's business, but I didn't know that JLC had published it first. It is unusual in that there is no indication of who published it - no name, no address, no colophon, no other titles - just Carr's distinctive handwriting and some quirky comments. I suspect that book dealers can't be bothered to list it because it gives no publishing details.
There are two other titles which are listed in books published by J.L. Carr that I haven't seen.
The first is a small book of poems by Charles Wesley, which is listed as another title in the series inside the third impression of John Clare, as well as in first editions of Arnold, Donne and Flecker, all probably published in about 1968/69. As Carr usually printed 4,000 copies of each title, it should be as common as the poems of John Dryden which Carr found hard to sell and did not reprint.
The second small book is listed in the back of the poems of Oscar Wilde as The Country Diary of an Elizabethan Gentleman (sumptuously illustrated)
. As Oscar Wilde was listed in the History of the Quince Tree Press, which was published in 1987, this small book may not have been published unless, perhaps like Aesops Fables
, it is overlooked by booksellers who don't know who published it.
If you have a copy of Charles Wesley
or The Country Diary of an Elizabethan Gentleman
, or any other small book published by J.L. Carr that is not listed on these pages, please let me know here.