Davies, Hugh Sykes

Petron

      London: Dent, 1935. A near Fine unmarked copy with dustjacket which has a 2cm tear to front with no loss, a small chip to spine head and some age darkening. viii + 79 pages. Hugh Sykes Davies (1909-1984) was the author of the English Surrealist manifesto of 1936 and co-curator of the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition. 'Petron' is a Surrealist prose poem and regarded as the first ''novel' produced by the Surrealist Group in England. The picaresque wanderings of its eponymous hero are influenced by the poems of Ariosto but its method of construction are primarily surreal. Davies was a University Lecturer, Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and among his numerous friends were C.S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, Anthony Blunt, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Conrad Aiken and Salvador Dali. Davies made the young Malcolm Lowry his ward in an attempt to stop him drinking. **** A SCARCE AND IMPORTANT WORK **** . First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7!" - 9!" tall.