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Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc was an Anglo-French writer, historian and poet. Carr reported that he had published more than one edition of the poems of Hilaire Belloc in his History of the QTP. Two impressions have been seen: the first states in Carr's hand that there are 61 books in the collection and no number is given; in the second the 61 has been changed to '101 books in this collection' and that this edition is no. 95 in the series. If there were 61 titles when the first edition was published, how can the second edition be number 95? There are also six other titles with the number 95: Lord Byron, The Pleasing Instructor, The Young Woman's Old Testament, Margaret Wells, R.L. Stevenson and a Dictionary of English Cricketers, volume 2. All rather confusing.

However the first edition of Belloc marked a change in the way that the small books were counted. It is the first small book which stated the number in the collection (61). This was followed by 63 twice (Smart 1 and Burns 1), 65 (Pope 1), 66 (Skelton 1), then 69 (Hood 1). The missing numbers 62, 64, 67 and 68 in the series have not been seen. Carr used the terms series, collection and library but from 79 (Gibbon 1), fixed on 'series'. There are eight titles which state that there are 85 in the series and seven which are 95.

(Last updated on 6/11/2020)

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Dates and short encomium. Poem by G.K. Chesterton. Quotation from Belloc: 'When I am dead...'. Poems: Ha'nacker mill; On a sleeping friend; Auvergnat; The Elm; On a dead hostess; The Loser; Rose; The South Country; The False Heart; Matilda who told lies, and was burned to death; The Vulture; Tarantella; Lord Finchley; Lord Heygate; The Example; Duneton Hill; Henry King who chewed bits of string, and was early cut off in dreadful agonies; two poems with no titles; On a Great House; The Statue; William Shand; The Pacifist; On Hygiene; On Vital Statistics; Epitaph on Politician; Her Final Role; Time Cures All; The Night; poem signed G.K.C., presumably G.K. Chesterton.

Notes:

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Rear and front covers (click to enlarge)

Inside rear cover (click to enlarge)

Content: Dates and short encomium. Poem by G.K. Chesterton. Quotation from Belloc: 'When I am dead...'. Poems: Ha'nacker mill; On a sleeping friend; Auvergnat; The Elm; On a dead hostess; The Loser; Rose; The South Country; The False Heart; Matilda who told lies, and was burned to death;The Vulture; Tarantella; Lord Finchley; Lord Heygate; The Example; Duneton Hill; Henry King who chewed bits of string, and was early cut off in dreadful agonies; two poems with no titles; On a Great House; The Statue; William Shand; The Pacifist; On Hygiene; On Vital Statistics; Epitaph on Politician; Her Final Role; Time Cures All; The Night; poem signed G.K.C. presumably G.K. Chesterton.

Notes: The only difference between the first and second impressions is that the number in the collection of books has been altered by hand from 61 to 101 (though it looks like 161 or 181) and the publisher at the base of the back cover has been changed and a statement that this is no. 95 in the series has been added. It was probably published after 1987.

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