Wednesday, October 4, 2017

323. Dedicated to T. Sturge Moore

Last Saturday and Sunday, the Amsterdam International Antiquarian Book & Map Fair hosted an international company of antiquarian booksellers. One of the exhibitors was Sophie Schneideman from London.


Charles Ricketts, Beyond the Threshold (1929)
Among the treasures on view on her shelves were several Ricketts related books. One of those was a copy of Beyond the Threshold that Ricketts dedicated to Thomas Sturge Moore: 'To T. Sturge Moore from his old friend C. Ricketts.'

A touching dedication from Ricketts's later years, including a phrase that he used for several other friends of long standing. The 'old friends' possibly became even dearer to him when Charles Shannon became disabled after a fall in 1928, a year before the publication of Beyond the Threshold. Due to Shannon's amnesia, Ricketts lost his companion who sometimes even acted hostile towards him. Lonely years followed, and Ricketts died a few years later, in 1931.