The Black Diaries. An Account of Roger Casement's Life and Times, with a Collection of His Diaries and Public Writings

London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1959. AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY, WITH TWO UNIQUE AND IMPORTANT LETTERS CITED IN THE STANDARD OLYMPIA PRESS BIBLIOGRAPHY. One of 2,000 copies of the first British edition. (Actually this "British edition" was created by taking 2,000 copies of the first American (Grove Press) edition to England, putting a sticker over the imprint, and issuing a new dustjacket.) LAID IN ARE TWO EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TYPED LETTERS SIGNED--ABOUT 1,000 WORDS--FROM THE EDITOR, SINGLETON-GATES, on his letterhead, to a correspondent in Nothern Rhodesia (later Zambia) (!). In these unpublished letters, written during the 1960s, Singleton-Gates describes his feelings towards Casement. He also describes, in passionate terms, the fascinating circumstances surrounding the publication of these scandalous diaries, and the numerous obstacles he faced, including copyright and censorship issues. He furthermore explains his various other projects relating to Casement, none of which came to fruition. It is fair to say that these letters shed considerable light on the limits of press freedoms in Britain during the late 50s and 60s, as well as on the way Casement's heirs felt about his legacy. THESE LETTERS ARE CITED--and briefly excerpted--on pp. 60-61 of Patrick Kearney's bibliography, The Paris Olympia Press (Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2007). Also laid in are numerous newspaper clippings from 1959 and 1960, all relating to the publication. 4to. Publisher's cloth. Fine and bright, in a very good price-clipped dj.