Wales, Vol IV, No. 5, Autumn 1944

102pp stapled journal in light card covers (covers are toned, especially at edges and around spine, and gently worn, rubbed at edges). Internally a little toning on first and last few pages but generally neat, clean and bright. ‘Wales’ was a literary and political journal celebrating Welsh literature, containing fiction, poetry, reviews, and articles, published between 1938 and 1960. This issue features, among other things, A Letter on Welsh Politics by George Woodcock, Earth Green and Red by J Gywn Griffiths, Political Trends by John Lagonna (with a curious endorsement of communist economic policy), Parliamentary Memories by Lord Clwyd, The Political Enigma of Tim Ellis by Ithel Davies and four poems by Lynette Roberts. Most significantly perhaps, this issue contains part two of an article by Robert Graves, entitled The Roebuck and the Thicket on the front cover but referred to internally as Dog, Lapwing and Roebuck : an article which is the genesis of a what was to become Graves’ The White Goddess, and as such is the first public outing of Graves’ concept and work. The White Goddess was originally intended to be published by Rhys at the Druid Press but the idea floundered as a result of the politics surrounding war time paper shortages and the political control of the printers Rhys could use.