Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia
To be held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday
6th, 7th, 8th & 9th August 2026
Lot 1740
Estimate: £60/90
‘Cricket Country’. Edmund Blunden. First edition London 1944. Original hardback with good dustwrapper. Ownership signature in blue ink to the front endpaper of ‘J.E. Morpurgo, Italy, Oct. [19]44’. To the inside front cover is a single page handwritten letter from Blunden to ‘Dear Morpurgo’, dated 19th April 1945. Blunden opens ‘If I had struck a ball from Verity to the boundary it would have been my autobiography- or even if I had been caught and bowled by him’. He thanks Morpurgo for ‘writing to me from the battlefield or its godless precincts... and I value highly such praise for my small book on or round cricket’ (Morpurgo was serving in Italy at the time). He closes with the hope that Morpurgo will write about his war experiences. Nicely signed ‘E. Blunden’. Padwick 6657. Slight breaking to page block, otherwise in good condition. An excellent association copy.
Edmund Blunden was a celebrated First World War poet, and was a close friend, mentor and artistic inspiration of the academic, writer and professor of American literature, Jack Eric Morpurgo, who served as a British Army officer in World War II. Morpurgo was also the stepfather of the famous children’s author, Michael Morpurgo.