London: John Murray, 1900

Small 8vo, pp. 196. Original blue boards with yapped fore-edges, lettered in gilt to front panel and spine. Top edge gilt. Blue silk bookmark. Boards a little marked and rubbed, very light wear to corners and spine ends.

First edition of Onions' first book. GERSHON LEGMAN'S COPY, WITH HIS 1952 OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE TO FRONT FREE ENDPAPER.

Gershon Legman [1917-1999] was the pre-eminent erotic biblio-historian of the twentieth century. In 1953 he published an exhaustive review of the limerick form, in a book which featured more than 1,700 examples of the genre -- most of them filthy. He retained a lifelong enthusiasm for the verse form, and added new examples to the many later editions of the compendium as and when they were published.