WILSON (EDWARD A.) 'The Barrier Silence', TYPESCRIPT ANNOTATED BY THOMAS GRIFFITH TAYLOR, [Octob...

WILSON (EDWARD A.) 'The Barrier Silence', TYPESCRIPT ANNOTATED BY THOMAS GRIFFITH TAYLOR, typescript in blue (title and 18 lines of poem), typed with manuscript addition by Thomas Griffith Taylor ('Grif') of 4 lines in pencil in the lower margin ('I have posted the other copy in ye Box & will inform ye Editor. Grif'), on one sheet of lined paper (recto only), a later printed version of the poem tipped onto the verso at upper margin, 260 x 200mm., [October 1911] Footnotes: 'THE SILENCE WAS DEEP WITH A BREATH LIKE SLEEP/AS OUR SLEDGE RUNNERS SLID ON THE SNOW' - an original typescript of Edward Wilson's poignant poem written in October 1911 for inclusion in part 3 of The South Polar Times, typed and annotated by Thomas Griffith Taylor, fellow member of Scott's British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition. The Barrier Silence was written by Wilson shortly after his return as one of the party to Cape Crozier (described by Cherry-Garrard in The Worst Journey in the World), and also after he had been selected by Scott as a member of the South Pole Party. 'Wilson's poem is no literary masterpiece, but its significance lies in the fact that it is sinisterly premonitory of his and his four colleagues' tragic demise on their return from the South Pole a few months after he wrote the poem' (Lewis-Smith, see below) For a full description of the 'drafting, publishing and subsequent reproduction of Edward Wilson's evocative and sinisterly premonitory poem', and the significance of this version see R. Lewis-Smith, 'The Barrier Silence by Edward A. Wilson' in Polar Record, 2018. He demonstrates that this version was 'probably the penultimate version prior to the poem's publication in SPT3 at the expedition hut in 1911'. Whilst Wilson contributed many illustrations to the Times this was his only confirmed literary contribution. Provenance: Formerly the property of Violet Oates, sister of Captain Lawrence Oates, one of the members (alongside Wilson) of Scott's ill-fated South Pole Party, loosely inserted in her copy of the third volume of The South Polar Times (see Lot 261 in this sale); Dr. Ronald Lewis-Smith. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing