BOYD, Martin

Retrospect

Melbourne, H.H. Champion, Australasian Authors' Agency, 1920.

Octavo, 45, [3] (blank, colophon, blank) pages.

Blue papered boards lettered in gilt on the front cover and spine; all edges uncut; covers a little unevenly sunned, and slightly scuffed, marked and bumped; light wear to the top corners, with a tiny surface nick to the spine; endpapers offset; occasional light foxing; a very good copy.

Martin à Beckett Boyd (1893-1972), son of Arthur Merric and Emma Minnie Boyd, brother of Penleigh, uncle of Arthur, Robin, Guy and David, spent much of his life in England and Italy. He is best known for his novels, but his first two published works were books of verse. They were inspired in part by his war experiences. 'Having completed an officers' training course, in the summer of 1916 he was posted to the Royal East Kent Regiment, known as the "Buffs"....In September 1917 Boyd applied for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. There the casualty rate was even higher than in the infantry, but flying avoided the immediate horror of fighting hand to hand'. He completed his training as a pilot, choosing 'the single-seater fighter plane, the Sopwith Camel, because he did not want to risk the life of an observer. The Armistice came as he was awaiting orders to return to France.... In his poems ("Verses", privately published c.1919, and "Retrospect", 1920) Boyd's incipient pacifism is less apparent than his idealization of the doomed youth of his generation' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). His first novel, 'Love Gods', was published in 1925 under the pseudonym Martin Mills.