Selected Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne. With Illustrations and Decorations by Harry Clarke and an Introduction by Humbert Wolfe. London: The Bodley Head, 1928 & New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. First Edition. Pp xxvi, 217, uncut, top edge in gilt. Maroon buckram, with title and decoration in gilt on upper cover and on spine. Lacks dust jacket. Some light fading to cloth contents pages in fine bright condition.

The eleven plates of this work are considered to be the most erotic of Harry Clarke’s work.

After publication Herbert Wolfe disassociated himself from the work. He objected strenuously to Clarke’s illustrations, depicting his erotic interpretation of the poems. Wolfe, an Italian-born British poet, was one of the most popular British authors of the 1920s.

Harry Clarke was one of Ireland’s greatest, and most controversial, modern artists. Emerging during the later phases of the literary and dramatic movement known as the  Celtic Revival, he joined the ranks of literary greats W. B. Yates, J. M. Synge and Sean O’Casey in shaping the international reputation of Ireland as a modern sovereign state