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Poems by Iris TREE
TREE, Iris. Poems. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1920.
First edition. Iris Tree's first book - encompasses her poetry from 1912-1919, including her war poems. Includes poems previously published in Vanity Fair and Wheels, an avant-garde poetry anthology edited by Edith Sitwell. Alongside Iris Tree, Wheels anthologized Nancy Cunard and Wilfred Owen.
A rare book made especially interesting by Tree's war poetry, praised by Aldous Huxley in a contemporary review.
Illustrations by Curtis Moffat (1887-1949), American visual artist and Tree’s first husband. Photographic frontispiece depicts the bust of Iris Tree by Jacob Epstein.
Iris Beerbohm-Tree (1897-1968), poet, actress, muse, and bohemian. She was the daughter of the actor and theatre manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and the niece of the writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm. Her best friends were Lady Diana Manners (later Cooper) and the rebel heiress, Nancy Cunard. Iris Tree was painted by Amadeo Modigliani, Augustus John, and quite a few members of the Bloomsbury group, including Vanessa Bell and Dora Carrington. In the mid-1920s Iris toured the United States with Max Rheinhardt’s play The Miracle, starring in the nun role, while Diana Cooper played the part of the Madonna. Decades later Iris Tree appeared in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, playing herself.
144 pp. Frontispiece (Head of Iris Tree by Jacob Epstein), 4 plates by Curtis Moffat. 8vo, original cloth, faint old stain to covers. Endpapers partially browned. Contemporary review of this volume tipped-in to front endpaper. An intriguing gift inscription to front pastedown and endpaper - ‘For the Frog Prince’s beloved mother. Christmas 1973. And who would have guessed that it would all end with a kitchen floor covered with burnt toast?’