Poetry
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LARKIN, Philip (contrib.) Poetry from Oxford in Wartime.London : 1945
First edition, first impression, of this anthology of poetry, which includes one of Larkin's first appearances in book form. It was published in February 1945, five months before Larkin's debut collection, The North Ship.
This copy has an appealing literary provenance, from the library of publisher John K. Martin (b. 1930), founder of the Black... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 146875
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LARKIN, Philip, & others. Oxford Poetry 1942-43.Oxford : 1943
First edition, first impression, of this early appearance of Larkin in print, who graduated from Oxford the following summer with a first in English.
Larkin contributes three poems to the volume, "Stone Church Damaged by a Bomb" (p. 41), "Mythological Introduction" (p. 42), and "Poem" (p. 43). This copy has an appealing literary provenance, from... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 146803
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HEANEY, Seamus. Columcille the Scribe.Dublin : 2004
Signed limited issue, number 124 of 150 copies signed by the author at the foot of the sheet. Heaney translated this Irish poem, the earliest known version of which is a 16th-century copy held at the Bodleian Library, to celebrate his enrolment as a member of the Royal Irish Academy on 9 June 1997, which he then presented to the Academy on vellum in... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 145994
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HEANEY, Seamus. Sweeney Praises the Trees.New York : 1981
First edition, number 41 of 110 copies only, additionally signed by the author on the title page; scarce, especially so signed and in such fine condition. Sweeney Praises the Trees is an early version of part of his modern English translation of the ancient Irish Buile Shuibhne, preceding his complete translation, published in 1983 as Sweeney Astray.... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 142601
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HEANEY, Seamus. Hailstones.Dublin : 1984
First edition, signed limited issue, one of 250 unnumbered cloth-bound copies signed by the author on the title page; here additionally inscribed by Heaney "Mary - fine girl y'are! Seamus" under his signature. The recipient was Heaney's friend Mary Conley Downe.
Downe founded, with her husband Edward, the Irish Clifden Arts Festival, now the... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 142605
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GRAVES, Robert (ed.); HARDY, Thomas; Siegfried Sassoon; et al. The Owl.London : 1919-23
First editions, first impressions, the first number being from the very scarce signed limited issue, one of 24 unnumbered copies signed by the 18 contributors: Max Beerbohm, George Belcher, Pamela Biano, W. H. Davies, John Galsworthy, Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy, Eric Kennington, J. Masefield, Robert Nichols, Nancy Nicholson, W. Nicholson, William Orpen,... Learn More£3,250.00Stock Code: 139992
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![[Complete set of] New Numbers.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/4/148519.jpg)
BROOKE, Rupert; Lascelles Abercrombie; John Drinkwater; Wilfred Wilson Gibson. [Complete set of] New Numbers.Ryton, Dymock, Gloucester : 1914
First editions, first impressions. The four numbers comprising the complete run of New Numbers by the "Dymock Poets". Forty-one poems are present, of which fifteen are by Rupert Brooke. The majority of the poems in Brooke's 1914 and Other Poems first appeared here, including the first publication of his famous poem "The Soldier".
Keynes, in his... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 148519
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SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles. Poems and Ballads.London : 1866
First edition, first issue (with Moxon imprint), first state with Wise's textual errors uncorrected, of the most sensationally controversial book of English poetry of its century, its contents being a heady mix of sadomasochism, necrophilia, egalitarianism, and blasphemy. This copy passed through the hands of renowned book dealer Martin Stone and has... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 148689
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AUDEN, W. H. Spain.London : 1937
First edition, second impression, signed by the author on the title page, his printed name struck through.
This title was written after Auden's visit to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, a troubling experience that left him morally ambivalent towards the Republican cause. He published this supportive poem on his return, however, to defend the... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 146828
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AUDEN, W. H. The Collected Poetry.New York : 1945
First edition, third printing, familiarly inscribed by the author using his first name reserved for friends, "Bill Gray with best wishes Wystan Auden", his printed name struck through. Auden has written "1927-1944" under the title, reflecting his original (rejected) wish that, "as to the title, I want Poems 1928-1945. The word Collected suggests finality... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 146839
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AUDEN, W. H. City Without Walls and Other Poems.London : 1969
First edition, first impression, familiarly inscribed by the author the year after publication using his first name reserved for friends on the title page: "For Patrick Garland. With best wishes, from Wystan Auden June. 1970", his printed name struck through. Garland (1935-2013) was a writer, actor, and director.
Loosely inserted is a newspaper... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 147003
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AUDEN, W. H. A Selection by the Author.London : 1958
First edition, first impression, familiarly inscribed by the author using his first name reserved for friends on the title page: "To Bill from Wystan", his printed name struck through.
The recipient was Dr William ("Woods") Shelton Gray, Jr (1926-1993); his ownership inscription is on the half-title of this copy. Gray fostered friendships with... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 147380
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AUDEN, W. H. About the House.New York : 1965
First edition, second printing, familiarly inscribed by the author using his first name reserved for friends on the title page: "Bill Gray with best wishes Wystan Auden", his printed name struck through.
The recipient Dr William ("Woods") Shelton Gray, Jr (1926-1993) fostered friendships with major literary figures such as Auden and T. S. Eliot,... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 146830
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THOMAS, Dylan. The Doctor and the Devils.London : 1953
First edition, first impression, publisher's file copy with "file" stamps to the jacket and first two leaves, and with release details penned to the front free endpaper.
Thomas adapted this every day story of grave robbing folk for dramatic performance in the mid 1940s. And indeed Dent first set the book in 1946 getting the process of publication... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 148610
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HUXLEY, Aldous. Leda.London : 1920
First edition, signed limited issue, number 149 of 160 copies signed by the author on the limitation page. This signed limited issue had an illustrated frontispiece not included in the trade issue, though lacking in this copy. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 148686
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YEATS, W. B. Poems.London : 1904
Presentation copy to Julia Anderson (née Quinn), inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "To my friend John Quinn's sister, November twelfth, 1904. W. B. Yeats".
John Quinn conveyed the book to his sister with a lengthy inscription beneath Yeats's on the front free endpaper - "To Julia: Yeats wrote in this book and gave it to me for... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 144445
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WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass.Brooklyn, NY : 1855
First edition, first state binding. The first edition of Leaves of Grass was self-published by Whitman. His money ran tight as production continued and the bindings became progressively less elaborate. Only 337 copies were bound in the deluxe first binding with gilt border, edges gilt and marbled endpapers, as here. A total of 795 copies were eventually... Learn More£250,000.00Stock Code: 143598
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THOMAS, Dylan. Poems.New York : 1971
First US edition, first printing, the editor Daniel Jones's own copy with the publisher's note to that effect, inscribed by him to his wife on the front free endpaper, "To Irene, with love from Dan. 23rd November 1971". Also included are a long autograph letter signed from poet Edith Sitwell to Daniel Jones, dated 22 March 1954 and concerning the music... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 140659
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HILL, Geoffrey. ClavicsLondon : 2011
First edition, first issue, number 92 of 100 copies signed by the author on the half-title. Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 148773
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AUDEN, W. H. Three Songs for St. Cecilia's Day.New York City : 1941
First collected edition, first impression, one of 250 copies. Signed by the author on the title page. Signed copies are rare.
The poems were originally published in Harper's Bazaar and subsequently privately printed for Caroline Newton, the wealthy daughter of a well-known bibliophile. She had fallen in love with Auden and positioned herself... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 148611
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GINSBERG, Allen. Empty Mirror.New York : 1961
First edition, first printing, one of 1,000 copies only. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 148570
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ELIOT, T. S. Poems Written in Early Youth.London : 1967
First trade edition, first impression. Poems Written in Early Youth was originally published privately in 1950 at Stockholm in an edition of twelve copies only. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 148577
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PLATH, Sylvia. Winter Trees.London : 1971
First edition, first impression. This book constitutes a collection of poems written in between Plath's Colossus and Ariel, which was edited and published posthumously by Ted Hughes. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 148569
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DAHL, Roald. Rhyme Stew.London : 1989
First edition, fourth impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the half-title, "Happy Birthday Colin, Roald, 12 Feb. 1990". The recipients was Colin Ross-Munro. Colin's wife, Jan, was an old friend of Dahl's second wife, Liccy. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 118340
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SMITH, Patti. Early Work 1970-1979.New York : 1994
First edition, first printing, signed by Smith on the title page. Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 148659
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ROETHKE, Theodore. Words for the Wind.London : 1957
First edition, first impression, preceding the US edition by a year, of this collection of poems by Roethke.
Roethke met Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes at a party on 1 February 1961. The following day, Plath wrote about him to her mother: "I've always wanted to meet him, as I find he is my Influence. Ted gave me his collection Words for the Wind... Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 148661
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THOMAS, Dylan. Under Milk Wood.London : 1954
First edition in book form, first impression. Under Milk Wood was originally commissioned as a radio drama by the BBC, and was first broadcast on 25 January 1954. It was originally printed in the magazine Mademoiselle in their February 1954 issue. The posthumously published work has since become one of Thomas's best known. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 148621
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AUDEN, W. H. City Without Walls, and other poems.London : 1969
First edition, first impression. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 148553
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LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. Excelsior.Boston : 1878
A pretty illustrated edition of Longfellow's memorable poem first published in 1842, this copy with a slip pasted in at the front carrying an autograph quotation from the poem, signed and dated 1848; "His brow was sad, his eyes beneath / Flashed like a falchion from its sheath, / and like a silver clarion rung / the accents of that unknown tongue, /... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 122598
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POUND, Ezra. Versi ProsaiciRome : 1959
First edition, first impression, one of 250 copies, of which this copy is un-numbered and in the special binding noted by Gallup. The present copy is a bibliographical oddity, since Gallup calls for additional stamping in blind and gold, not present here. Pound specifically stated that the poems did not belong to his series of Cantos. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 148491
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FROST, Robert. A Further Range.New York : 1936
First edition, Book-of-the-Month Club issue, presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper "Robert Frost for Marjorie Howard. 1939".
Three different issues of A Further Range were published in May and June 1936: a limited issue and a trade issue (with two printings) both published in May within nine days of each other, and the present... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 147587
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MCCLURE, Michael. Plane Pomes.New York : 1969
First edition, first printing, copy "A" of 26 lettered copies signed by the author on the limitation page and not for sale. This is a remarkably well preserved copy of a rare and fragile work by the Beat poet. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 148392
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YEATS, W. B. The Herne's Egg.London : 1938
First edition, first impression. Very scarce in such condition. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 117402
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HUGHES, Ted. The Hawk in the Rain.London : 1957
First edition, first impression, of the author's first book. This copy comes from the library of the author V. S. Pritchett, with his signed book label to the front pastedown. This is a great association copy. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 148197
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SMITH, Stevie. Not Waving but Drowning.London : 1957
First edition, first impression. The poet and novelist Florence Margaret "Stevie" Smith (1902-1971), was awarded the Cholmondeley Award for Poets and won the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry. Hugh Whitemore's play, Stevie, based on her life, was adapted into a film starring Glenda Jackson. Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 148207
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HEANEY, Seamus. The Haw Lantern.London : 1987
First edition, first impression, signed and dated by the author on the title page: "Seamus Heaney 26.6.87". The signature dates from the month of publication, as recorded by Brandes and Durkan.
Although unmarked as such, this is from the library of Dennis Saunders, one of the poet's long-term friends. Saunders organised poetry conferences for... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 148479
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LOCKER, Frederick. London Lyrics.London : 1881
First privately printed edition, large paper issue with frontispiece and illustration (not present in the ordinary issue), this copy in the deluxe vellum binding, other copies issued in cloth.
"Austin Dobson made the selection for the privately printed edition, and prefixed the prefatory sexain... very few copies were printed" (Murray); the... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 144310
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BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Don Juan.London : 1819 & 1821
First octavo edition of cantos I and II and first edition of cantos III to V, forming Byron's last and greatest work.
The First two cantos were first published the same year in quarto; none of Byron's writings since the first two cantos of Childe Harold seven years earlier had appeared in such a large and expensive format: the volume sold for... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 148457
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DICKEY, James. The Water-Bug's Mittens.Bloomfield Hills, Michigan : 1980
Signed limited edition, number 146 of 350 copies signed by Dickey. The Water-Bug's Mittens was first published the previous year following James Dickey's Fifth Annual Pound Lecture on the evening of 26 April 1979 at the University of Idaho. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 148463
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OMAR KHAYYÁM; HALL, Isabel Hawxhurst (illus.) Rubáiyát of the Astronomer-Poet of Persia.New York : 1911
First Hall edition, first printing, inscribed by the artist on the front free endpaper: "With the compliments of Isabel Hawxhurst Hall". This edition of the Rubáiyát is the only book illustrated by Hall (1887-1952), who later worked as a designer of stained glass windows, wallpaper, and textiles.
The text of this edition, Fitzgerald's translation,... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 147897
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NORSE, Harold. The Undersea Mountain.Denver : 1953
First edition, first printing, of Norse's first book of poetry, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "For Jim from Harold Paris 1961".
Harold Norse (1916-2009) was an avant-garde poet, best remembered today as a member of the Beat movement and, in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's words, "an expatriate voice in American poetry" (LA Times).... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 148159
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KIPLING, Rudyard. The Works.London : 1937-39
The Sussex Edition, number 513 of a limited edition of 525 sets signed by the author on the limitation leaf of vol. I. In his last years and with his health failing Kipling continued the gathering-up of existing material that resulted in "the great retrospective work... the Sussex Edition of his works, undertaken by Macmillan as a monument to one of... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 139233
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NERUDA, Pablo. Nuevo Canto de Amor a Stalingrado.Mexico : 1943
First edition, ordinary issue, presentation copy inscribed by the author "Los Guindos 1944 A Marci Garcés con el afecto de Pablo Neruda" on first leaf. One of 5,025 copies of which this is one of 5,000 on paper. The poem was read by the author in honour of the U.S.S.R. on 29 January 1943. Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 148412
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BELL, Clive. Poems.Richmond : 1921
First edition, sole impression, one of 350 unnumbered copies only, this one marked "not for sale" to front pastedown and found here with an early custom hand-marbled dust jacket, very much in the Hogarth style.
This copy has a highly distinguished collectors' provenance, bearing the loosely inserted bookplate of Robert Reedman, associated with... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 145470
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GRAY, Thomas. Poems.London : 1768
First collected edition, handsomely bound. It includes some of Gray's most popular works, such as "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College", and collects poems from Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751), Designs by Mr. Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray (1753) and Odes, by Mr. Gray, Printed at Strawberry Hill (1757).
For the present... Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 146901
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FROST, Robert. A Boy's Will.London : 1913
First edition, first impression, of Frost's first published book, an exceptional presentation copy, inscribed by him to fellow Dymock poet Wilfrid W. Gibson on the front free endpaper, "W.W.G. from R.F. Sept. 1913", perhaps on the occasion they first met, when Frost gave a poetry reading at Harold Monro's newly-opened Poetry Bookshop.
When A... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 146535
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LOWELL, Amy; and others. Some Imagist Poets.Boston & New York : 1915
First edition, first printing, inscribed by Lowell on the front free endpaper in the month of publication: "Elsie, with lots of love from Amy. April. 1915."
Some Imagist Poets was edited by Lowell and published a year after the first Imagist anthology, Ezra Pound's Des Imagistes. In her preface, Lowell describes how her intentions as an Imagist... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 146789
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GINSBERG, Allen. Bixby Canyon Ocean Path Word Breeze.New York : 1972
First edition, first printing, paperbound issue, one of an unknown run, inscribed by the author on the title page, "For Bill Butler, in Sunlight in Brighton July 16, 1973", with his signature beneath his printed name.
Bill Butler (1934-1977) was a significant figure of the British literary counterculture scene of the 1960s and 1970s, and from... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 145609
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HEANEY, Seamus. Beowulf.London : 1999
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. Heaney's translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic, which he dedicated to the memory of Ted Hughes (1930-1998), won the 1999 Whitbread Book of the Year award. Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 145566
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ROLFE, Frederick, Baron Corvo. The Songs of Meleager.London : [1937]
First edition, first impression, a notably attractive copy. This edition is printed with the English translation alongside the original Greek text. From the library of Hardy Amies, with his neat bookplate to the front pastedown. Amies held the Royal Warrant as dressmaker for Queen Elizabeth II, who worked for her from her accession to the throne 1952... Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 145607
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SHARP, William, as Fiona MacLeod. Runes of Woman.Portland, ME : 1915
First edition, one of 450 copies printed on Van Gelder paper, in the uncommon printed glassine jacket, this copy in notably smart condition.
Writer and editor William Sharp (1855-1905) adopted the pseudonym Fiona MacLeod in 1894 and secretly wrote under this name for the rest of his life. Sharp "constructed an elaborate series of deceptions,... Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 144999
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COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. The Poetical Works.London : 1828
First collected edition, one of 300 copies; there were also 12 copies printed on large paper. J. Dykes Campbell, later a biographer of Coleridge, wrote in 1888 that his copy of this edition "must be a rare book... from whatever cause, its scarcity is incontestable" (The Athenaeum, p. 307).
Coleridge was unhappy with the work, which was succeeded,... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 147753
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SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. The Land.London : 1926
First trade edition, first impression, signed by the author on the front free endpaper, together with an autograph letter signed from her. This is a rare variant copy, with the four wood engravings that were published only in the signed limited issue; in this copy, they are tipped in and unusually also signed by the artist.
This variant, not... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 145944
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RYLANDS, George. Russet and Taffeta.London : 1925
First edition, first impression, signed by Rylands on the title page and inscribed by him on the front free endpaper with a quote from Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, Act 5, Scene 2: "Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise.../ I do forswear them....../ Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd / In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes."
... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 145958
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SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. The Garden.London : 1946
First edition, signed limited issue, number 551 of 750 copies, numbered and signed by the author, and beautifully produced on handmade paper. Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 145952
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SHOVE, Fredegond. Daybreak.Richmond : 1922
First edition, first impression, with the errata slip loosely inserted. One of only 250 copies hand-printed by the Woolfs. As with many of the hand-printed Hogarth books, this copy has one of a number of the variant patterned papers to the boards. Copies in such good condition are rare, upside-down ones rarer still.
This copy has a highly distinguished... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 145727
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BLOOMSBURY - STRACHEY, Lytton; Leonard Woolf; Clive Bell; and others. Euphrosyne.Cambridge : 1905
First edition, sole impression, of this rare poetry anthology that constitutes the very first "Bloomsbury" publication, with anonymous contributions by Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, and Saxon Sidney-Turner, all peers at Trinity College, Cambridge. This copy has a further Bloomsbury Group association, coming from the library of two Bloomsburyites,... Learn More£6,000.00Stock Code: 145525
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ELIOT, T. S. The Waste Land.Richmond : 1923
First UK edition in book form, sole impression, one of about 460 copies hand-printed by the Woolfs, with the title label in the first state with asterisks (one of three states noted by Gallup, with no priority). This is a great association copy, with the bookplate of the novelist and playwright Richard Arthur Warren Hughes on the front pastedown.
Hughes... Learn More£8,750.00Stock Code: 145515
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VIVIEN, Renée. Les Kitharèdes.Paris : 1904
First edition thus, first printing, presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper "A Léon Bocquet, avec mes très sincères remerciements de son aimable accueil littéraire, Renée Vivien". This wonderful translation of the female lyric poets of classical Greece (imagined as the "Cythereans" of the island of Aphrodite) followed Vivien's groundbreaking... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 145267
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TREVELYAN, R. C. Rimeless Numbers.London : 1932
First edition, first impression, one of 400 copies. Pre-publication presentation copy, inscribed by Trevelyan on the front free endpaper, to the Canadian artist, and dedicatee of Trevelyan's Idylls of Theocritus, Elizabeth Muntz (1894-1977): "'E.M.' Betty, from R.C.T. 21 April 1932". The edition was not published until May. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 145054
