The Menin Road by Carola Oman first edition 1919

OMAN, Carola. The Menin Road and Other Poems.
 
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919.
 
8vo (190 × 125 mm). pp. 73. Original blue cloth, gilt-lettered to spine and upper board; original grey-blue printed dust wrapper, priced 6/– to spine. wrapper unusually well preserved, with some sunning to spine and panel edges, and light loss along with wear at spine ends, but an excellent survival of this fragile dust jacket. Cloth bright and fresh, internally clean with only minor toning. A very good or better copy. 
 
First edition of Carola Oman’s first book of poetry, issued in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Oman (1897–1978), later a distinguished historical novelist and biographer, served in France with the Voluntary Aid Detachment. The collection is dedicated to four fellow V.A.D.s – Lillian Chapman, May Wedderburn Cannan, Janet Dundas Allen, and Una Barron – “in memory of days we served together in England and France.”
 
The poems capture the bleakness and endurance of the Western Front, particularly in In the Ypres Sector and the title poem The Menin Road, March 1919. The latter reflects on the desolate Flanders landscape, while the former stands out for its poignant imagery: shell holes, dug outs, and railway cuttings. A rare book to find with its original dust wrapper.