New Numbers Set by Rupert Brooke, signed 1st / 1st, 1914

BROOKE, Rupert; Gibson, Wilfrid; ABERCROMBIE, Lascelles; DRINKWATER, John. New Numbers Set [First editions: Volumes 1-4; along with a second edition of Volume 1].
Gloucester: Crypt House Press, (1914)
SIGNED by Wilfrid Gibson and Lascelles Abercrombie along with ALS from Gibson. Four volumes in first edition state making a complete set along with a second edition of volume 1 making 5 volumes in total. The four first edition volumes are in very good condition. The original blue-grey soft covers are lightly soiled throughout but retain their original shade. The covers also suffer from fraying and some occasional tears. The internals of each volume are generally clean and white, but again are lightly soiled and feature light spots of browning throughout. Overall, these are very good copies with a fine provenance. This being that Lascelles Abercrombie has initialled in pencil in one of the first edition volumes and Wilfrid Gibson has signed his name in the second edition volume. There is an attached letter from Gibson to a customer, dated 1914 where he discusses the publication of New Numbers and that he no longer has first print run copies left.  A poetry journal produced by four of the Dymock poets: Rupert Brooke, Wilfrid Gibson, Lascelles Abercrombie and John Drinkwater. It was published between February and December 1914 with a total of forty-one poems, fifteen of which are by Brooke. His famous Petrarchan sonnet, ‘The Soldier’, first appeared in New Numbers, and the lines “If I should die, think only this of me:/ That there’s some corner of a foreign field/ That is for ever England” are present on various cenotaphs worldwide. A scarce set signed like this.