Selections from the Works of Su Tung-P'o. (A.D. 1036-1101). Translated into English with Introduction, Notes and Commentaries. The Foreword by Edward Chalmbers Werner.

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First edition, first impression, of this tribute to Su Shi (Su Dongpo), a towering figure in the history of poetry. His prose poems bring "such joy that one feels enchanted by the beauty and elegance of his language, pleased by the quickness and agility of his mind, and persuaded by. his robust spirit and outlook on life" (Zhang). During his lifetime, Su (1037-1101) was China's pre-eminent literatus. He was "not only the greatest poet and writer of the Song, but one of the greatest in the whole history of Chinese literature" (ibid.). As the foreword notes, "readers of this book will experience the feeling of glad surprise that came to Keats on first opening Chapman's Homer" (p. 13). The translator (1894-1945) served as Secretary for Chinese Affairs in Sarawak during the reign of the fourth White Rajah. Illustrations for this work were provided by his wife Averil Salmond Le Gros Clark (1903-1975). Zhang Longxi, A History of Chinese Literature, 2023, available online. Quarto. Original yellow cloth, spine lettered in gilt, red seal of Su Shi on spine and front board, top edge yellows, others untrimmed. With dust jacket With wood-engraved frontispiece of Su Shi after a Qianlong-era painting, 18 similar illustrations in text, all by Averil Salmond Le Gros Clark, light brown horse vignette on title page; tailpieces. With the 15 November 1941 ownership inscription of the agricultural scientist William Glynn Burton (1916-1989) on the front pastedown. Spine and head of boards sunned, front cover bright, faint foxing on rear cover, top edge a little dusty, contents fresh with just a little foxing; dust jacket foxed but unclipped, chipping at head of spine: a very good copy in like jacket. Seller Inventory # 168028

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