London: Martin Secker (1924). First edition. Original blue cloth, upper board lettered in gilt, in the original printed dust jacket. Book Condition: Fine, Jacket Condition: Very Good- complete, with some toning & wear to edges. 45pp.

A remarkable presentation copy, inscribed by Lord Alfred Douglas to the poet Arthur Clark Kennedy, with a full-page transcription, apparently in Douglas's hand and signed by him, of the separately composed prison poem “To a Certain Judge”; together with a substantial autograph letter signed from Douglas to Kennedy, with its original envelope addressed to Kennedy at Chillingham Castle.

Inscribed by Douglas on the front blank:

“Arthur Clark Kennedy
from
Alfred Douglas.
February. 1924.”

The date is evidently a slip for February 1925. The book itself was not published until after Douglas's imprisonment in 1924, and the accompanying letter to Kennedy is dated 11 February 1925, while its envelope, addressed to Kennedy at Chillingham Castle, is postmarked Nice, 22 February 1925. Douglas would therefore appear simply to have written the previous year by mistake when presenting the volume early in 1925.

On the verso of the same leaf is a full-page transcription of Douglas's sonnet “To a Certain Judge,” headed with that title and signed “Alfred Bruce Douglas,” followed by the notation: “Written in Wormwood Scrubs
Prison January 1924.”

The transcription appears to be in Douglas's hand, although the comparatively heavy paper leaves little visible show-through or impression on the opposite side, and we therefore describe it conservatively as apparently autograph pending definitive physical authentication. We have traced no description of another copy of In Excelsis, in either the ordinary or limited issue, containing this additional manuscript-style leaf. “To a Certain Judge” does not form part of the sonnet sequence printed in the volume; manuscript versions of the poem are recorded in institutional Douglas collections.

Laid into the volume is a substantial autograph letter signed by Douglas, two pages on a single sheet of blue stationery headed “Gloria Mansion, 63, Promenade des Anglais, Nice,” dated 11 February 1925, addressed “Dear Mr Clark Kennedy.” Douglas writes of his recent movements and acquaintances on the Riviera and acknowledges material sent to him by Kennedy. Retained with the letter is its original blue envelope, addressed in Douglas's hand to:

Arthur Clark Kennedy Esq.
Chillingham Castle,
Chathill,
Northumberland.

The envelope bears a Nice postmark of 22 February 1925.

The recipient, Arthur Clark Kennedy (1860–1939), was a minor poet, translator, and literary figure of the fin-de-siècle period, author of Pictures in Rhyme (1891) and Erotica (1894), and an early English translator of Paul Verlaine. During the period represented by this presentation he was agent to the Earl of Tankerville at Chillingham Castle, Northumberland, where he lived from approximately 1923 to 1926. His literary correspondence extended to a number of prominent contemporaries. Particularly germane to the present association, Kennedy was corresponding at almost exactly this time with Winston Churchill, whose father he had written about and who sent Kennedy a presentation copy of his Lord Randolph Churchill in January 1925.

That circumstance lends an unusual resonance to the present volume. Douglas had composed In Excelsis during his six-month imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs following his conviction for criminal libel against Winston Churchill. The printed preliminary statement records that the sequence was begun in Wormwood Scrubs on 5 February and completed on Good Friday, 18 April 1924. Thus, within weeks of corresponding with Churchill, Kennedy received from Douglas a presentation copy of the poems resulting from Douglas's imprisonment for libelling Churchill, augmented with another prison-associated poem and accompanied by Douglas's personal letter.

With Arthur Clark Kennedy's armorial bookplate to the front pastedown and a small contemporary pencilled ownership notation at the upper corner of the title page, apparently relating to Kennedy and Chillingham Castle.

Original dust jacket somewhat toned and lightly worn, with minor edge wear; blue cloth bright, with gilt lettering remaining clear; some expected age-toning internally. The accompanying letter and envelope show folds and minor handling wear, the envelope with some edge loss. Overall a very good copy in the scarce original jacket, with an exceptional contemporary literary association.

An unusually rich association copy of Douglas's prison poems: presented to fellow poet Arthur Clark Kennedy, augmented with a complete signed transcription of a separate Douglas prison poem, and retaining Douglas's accompanying autograph letter and its Chillingham Castle envelope.