London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1902. First edition of the author’s pseudonymously published first book. Hayward English Poetry, 315. The author’s own copy, signed by the poet on the front fly-leaf (as described in Hayward’s catalogue of English poetry exhibited at the National Book League in London in 1947), and inscribed below to his nurse and companion of many years, Sister Nathalie Saxton, whom de la Mare met in 1936, and who would become his live-in nurse in 1948, caring for him until his death in 1956; inscribed on the front free-endpaper “To N. / with his love & all blessings / from W.J. 1949”, and with de la Mare’s signature above the inscription. As Theresa Whistler, de la Mare’s biographer, makes abundantly clear, Nathalie Saxton was one of de la Mare’s dearest, and most indispensable, friends during his later years: “‘N’, as she very soon became known to the family, was a born nurse, tireless, devoted, with clever hands and heart. . . . de la Mare became at once very much attached to her. . . . . One of his refreshments was to meet ‘N’, his former nurse, during these trips to London. She was essential to him throughout the strain of Elfie’s (de la Mare’s wife’s) illness and withdrawal. He could trust her completely, and her quite different life and background, outside his literary world, refreshed him. . . . There was more to these meetings, however, than her rectitude would allow to surface. She had become very dear to his susceptible heart in the misery of Elfie’s decline. . . . Presently N’s mother . . . became uneasy and she and N . . . talked things over. N, suppressing her own feelings, put a brake on the relationship. She burned de la Mare’s precious letters, steered the friendship steadily away from dangerous currents, but continued her support . . . . His home suited him perfectly and all was harmony in it under N’s reign. Among the poems he gave her in manuscript from time to time was one he revised and published the next year as ‘The Changeling’. In her version, he called it ‘At Last’, and the mood of its final stanza suggests his present contentment: ‘Only now; only with thee / My homesick heart can be / Stilled in the mystery; / Long did life’s day conceal / Thy tender dream and spell / Now all is well.’ . . . Sometimes he would get N to take down a sudden idea for a stanza late at night when he was awake . . . Sometimes he would dictate actual composed passages of stories to N . . . As a rule he would get N to write on alternate lines to leave him plenty of space for insertions. . . . By early 1954 the demands of caring for him were telling heavily on N’s health. She was at times desperately tired and asthmatic, but hid the exhaustion as best she could and carried on. . . .” – Theresa Whistler, The Life of Walter de la Mare (London: Duckworth, 1993), pp. 362-438. De la Mare’s copy of Songs of Childhood was shown in Hayward’s English Poetry exhibition in 1947, with the note: “The poet’s own copy of his first book, with his signature on the fly-leaf”, a description which conforms exactly to the present copy. De la Mare’s ownership signature appears toward the top of the front flyleaf, and his inscription to “N” appears at quite a distance below the poet’s earlier signature, toward the bottom of the page. Circumstances would certainly suggest that this is the same copy de la Mare loaned to the National Book League exhibition. It seems implausible that de la Mare would have signed the book in this way and inscribed it to his close friend and companion at the same time, and in this fashion, and even more implausible that Saxton would have purchased a copy of such a rare book. 8vo, frontispiece after Richard Doyle, original half-parchment and pale blue linen over boards, t.e.g., dust jacket. Backstrip lightly rubbed along joints otherwise a fine copy in dust jacket, with a very small chip out of the bottom spine panel and offsetting from two small old cellotape repairs at the bottom spine and bottom front flap fold, preserved in a half morocco slipcase. Booklabel of J. O. Edwards on front pastedown. A beautiful and distinguished association copy of the author's first book, in the extremely rare dust jacket.