Poetry
-
TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Poems.London : 1842
First edition of Tennyson's important early collection, quite scarce, and containing the first appearance of "Ulysses". This work was Tennyson's second publication with Edward Moxon, following Poems (1833), and contains original unpublished poetry that was written in the intervening decade. This was one of Tennyson's saddest yet most creative periods,... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 141374
-
OWEN, Wilfred. The Poems.London : 1931
First Blunden edition of Wilfred Owen's poems, first impression, number 3 of 160 large paper copies, and signed by Blunden on page 41 at the end of his "Memoir". This edition was expanded by fellow war-poet Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) from the first edition of 1920 edited by Siegfried Sassoon, who of all the war poets had known Owen best, albeit briefly.... Learn More£1,350.00Stock Code: 142396
-
HEANEY, Seamus. A Boy Driving his Father to Confession.Frensham, Farnham, Surrey : 1970
First edition, number 42 of 50 copies signed by Heaney, from a total edition of 150 printed on Glastonbury laid paper. This is not only one of the first limited editions put out by Heaney, and now very scarce, but also marks the first appearance of one of his early masterpieces. The last copy recorded at auction was in 1999, and about a third of the... Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 142440
-
DANTE ALIGHIERI. A Translation of the Inferno, in English Verse.Dublin : 1785
First edition, rare, of the first appearance of Boyd's translation of Dante, considered superior to the blank verse translation of 1782 by Charles Rogers, and preceding by 17 years Boyd's own completion of the Divine Comedy (1802), which would be the first published completion in English. This Dublin edition is the true first, preceding the London edition... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 136911
-
WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass.Brooklyn : 1855
First edition of one of the central works of American poetry. Much has been written of the significance of this first edition"America's second Declaration of Independence" to quote PMM. "The slender volume introduced the poet who, celebrating the nation by celebrating himself, has since remained at the heart of America's cultural memory because in the... Learn More£60,000.00Stock Code: 135889
-
OMAR KHAYYAM; FITZGERALD, Edward. Rubaiyat.London : [1911]
First edition thus, number 79 of 550 copies signed by Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe and printed on handmade paper (a further 25 were printed on japon), in a striking binding by Bayntun-Riviere.
This is one of the most lavish editions of the Rubáiyát in the renowned translation by Edward FitzGerald, first published in 1859. Of all the literature... Learn More£5,750.00Stock Code: 142428
-
STEVENS, Wallace. Notes toward a Supreme Fiction.Cummington, MA : 1942
First edition, number 111 of 190 numbered copies on Dutch Charcoal paper (a further 83 copies were issued signed and lettered), of "the central poem of the middle period, 'Notes toward a Supreme Fiction', dedicated to his closest friend, Henry Church. The three sections of 'Notes' - 'It must be abstract', 'It must change', and 'It must give pleasure'... Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 142340
-
BERRYMAN, John. Poems.Norfolk, CT : 1942
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "to Allan Covici with the best regards of John Berryman Berkeley 1 June '60". The recipient was a California-based writer, librarian, and bookseller based at UC Berkeley.
Poems was Berryman's first separately published book, preceded only by his inclusion in the collective... Learn More£1,350.00Stock Code: 142347
-
SPENSER, Edmund. Epithalamion.[New York] : 1902
The Saint Dunstan edition, number 9 of 30 copies, all printed on vellum, signed by the illuminator Ross Turner on the title page, and again alongside the publisher George Sproul on the limitation leaf. An extraordinarily fine book, beautifully printed and bound.
A lavish Gilded Age production, the "Saint Dunstan Volumes" were the brainchild of the... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 141703
-
PAUL, Eden & Cedar. The Appreciation of Poetry.London : 1920
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy inscribed to the publisher Stanley Unwin on the front free endpaper: "To Stanley Unwin with the writers' kind wishes. October 30th, 1920." Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 140810
-
HEANEY, Seamus. Night Drive.Bow, Crediton : 1970
First edition, sole impression, number 38 of 100 copies printed, and one of 55 with a poem inscribed in full in the author's manuscript facing the half-title (in this case the mildly erotic poem "Undine"), each signed and dated on the colophon.
Night Drive was published as part of Gilbertson's Manuscript Series, which also produced similar editions... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 141969
-
BERRYMAN, John. Poems.Norfolk, CT : 1942
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "to the Wymans w. every good wish this old nothing - John Berryman Ann Arbor March '65".
Poems was Berryman's first separately published book, preceded only by his inclusion in the collective publication Five Young American Poets in 1940; 2,000 copies were... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 142345
-
(DU FU.) TU FU. Wanderer and Minstrel Under Moons of Cathay.Portland, Maine : April 1929
First edition, number 30 of 50 copies printed on Japan vellum, signed by one of the translators Edna Worthley Underwood. "This is the first edition in the world of Tu Fu to be printed outside China, likewise it is the first edition of any one individual Chinese poet." (Foreword). Tu Fu, or Du Fu, who lived in the 8th century, during the Tang dynasty,... Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 142115
-
GRAVES, Robert. Love Respelt Again.New York : 1969
First US edition, number 893 of 1,000 copies signed by Graves. Reproduces fifty of Graves' poems in manuscript form. Learn More£85.00Stock Code: 141047
-
HARRISON, Tony. Anno Forty Two.[London] : 1987
Signed limited edition, number 25 of 50 copies signed by Tony Harrison and the printer-designer Michael Caine. Learn More£60.00Stock Code: 141041
-
FENTON, James. Children In Exile.Edinburgh : 1983
First edition, first impression. Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 140846
-
DANTE ALIGHIERI. The Divina Commedia,London : 1802
First complete edition in English of the Divine Comedy, and the first publication in English of the Purgatorio and the Paradiso; the Inferno here marking its fourth publication in English, following the first edition of 1782, and Dublin and London editions by Boyd in 1785. This complete edition was greatly significant for the reception of Dante in the... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 138899
-
BARRETT BROWNING, Elizabeth. Poems.London : 1850
First edition with the Sonnets from the Portuguese, handsomely bound with the original cloth preserved within, and both half-titles. EBB's Poems had first appeared in 1844, but this "New Edition" (the second overall) contains in the second volume the coveted and rare first appearance of Sonnets from the Portuguese, some of the most famous love poems... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 132112
-
BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Don Juan.London : 1819
First edition of the first two cantos of Byron's last and greatest work. 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 a guinea and a half (1 11s. 6d). Later cantos were published in octavo.
Hobhouse had preached caution and Murray had... Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 141802
-
HUNCKE, Herbert. Elsie John and Joey Martinez.New York : 1979
Signed limited edition, number 4 of 100 copies signed by both the author and the illustrator, and bound in unique handmade patterned paper-covered boards. Perhaps the first ten or so copies were specially bound in hardback, the rest of the issue being bound in wrappers.
Herbert Huncke (rhymes with junkie) was the charismatic street hustler, petty... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 141945
-
HARRISON, Tony. The Fire Gap.Newcastle upon Tyne : 1985
First trade edition. Inscribed by Harrison on the title page: "Tony Harrison, for Christopher 29.10.91". Appealingly designed by Caine. Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 141040
-
NERUDA, Pablo. Primeros poemos de amor.Madrid : 1936
First edition, one of 500 copies, of this collection of love poems by Neruda, essentially a condensed version of his famous and rare second collection Viente poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, originally published in Chile by Nascimento in 1924.
The poems included in this Madrid edition are poems 1, 4, 9, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, and... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 142298
-
(GONNE, Maud, illus.) YOUNG, Ella. Celtic Wonder-Tales.Dublin : 1910
First edition, first impression, signed by the illustrator on the title page, and with an original initialled drawing in black ink on the front free endpaper (and expanded version of the ornament printed on p. 20.) Edith Maud Gonne (1866-1953) was one of the boldest figures of the Irish Literary Revival; a suffragette and artist, she remains best known... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 137680
-
GRAY, Thomas. Designs for Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray.London : 1765
Fourth edition overall, expanded from the three editions of 1753 with further Odes, of this large, elaborately illustrated publication of the best-known works of the poet Gray, including the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. A presentation copy of H. A. J. Munro's translation of the Elegy into Latin (c. 1873) is tipped-in at the rear endpapers.
"This... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 142136
-
YEATS, W. B. The Winding Stair and other poems.London : 1933
First edition, first impression, of Yeats's follow-up collection to The Tower, containing some of his best, and most difficult, poems, such as "Blood and the Moon", "A Dialogue of Self and Soul", "Vacillation", and, of course, "Byzantium", and thus full of "those images that yet / fresh images beget; / that dolphin-torn, and gong tormented sea". A smaller... Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 119643
-
BLAKE, William. The Note-Book.London : 1935
First edition thus, number 175 of 650 copies, with the very scarce dust jacket. This fine Nonesuch Press edition constitutes the first printing in facsimile of Blake's famous notebook, known as the "Rossetti Manuscript", after its acquisition by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1847. This notebook contained a number of latterly famous shorter poems left unpublished... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 142098
-
PARKER, Dorothy. The Viking Portable Library.New York : 1945
First collected edition, fifth printing, inscribed on the front free endpaper "To Ruthven Todd - with gratitude to him for wanting this miserable signature. Dorothy Parker". Todd was a Scottish poet, artist, and novelist, best known as an editor of the works of William Blake. He moved to the United States in 1947 where he lived for 13 years.
This... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 141988
-
GIBRAN, Kahlil. The Earth Gods.New York : 1931
First edition, first printing, of Gibran's classic focusing on spiritual concepts, published the year of the author's death. Uncommon in such good condition and with the jacket. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 141927
-
BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett. Sonnets From The Portuguese.London : 1936
An attractive copy of some of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's most famous love poetry, first published in 1850. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 141860
-
BOWLES, Fred. G. In the Wake of the Sun: A Book of Verse.London : 1899
First and sole edition, rather uncommon. Fred G. Bowles was best known in his day as a lyricist. However, his poem "Resurrection", published here, was anthologized in The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse (1917). The Sign of the Unicorn was a small publishing house established by the "versatile journalist" and "mercurial 1890s figure" Ernest James... Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 141861
-
SPARE, Austin Osman, & Clifford Bax (eds.) The Golden Hind.London : April 1924
First edition, first impression, number 32 of 75 cloth copies signed by both Spare and Bax on the front free endpaper. From the library of the artist Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930), with his bookplate to the front pastedown, a leading member of the aesthetic movement and a prolific illustrator, producing book designs for Guthrie's Pear Tree Press,... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 141840
-
A. E. [George William Russell.] The Earth Breath and Other Poems.New York and London : 1897
First edition, dedicated to Yeats, who had encouraged Russell's first collection, Homeward (1894). An attractive little volume printed in an edition of 2, 000 copies by Will Bradley at the Wayside Press. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 141846
-
(BURNS, Robert.) JOHNSTONE, Alexander. The Flora of Burns.Edinburgh : 1905
First and sole edition, presentation copy from the author, inscribed at head of title page, "With Alexander Johnstone's compliments". This is a rare little pamphlet recorded at just 1 institutional library worldwide, Edinburgh University. Johnstone, lecturer on botany at the School of Medicine, Edinburgh, was the author of several textbooks, in particular... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 141831
-
OMAR KHAYYÁM. One Hundred Quatrains from the Rubáiyát.Worcester, Mass. : 1910
First edition in Japanese, number 31 of 100 copies, and invariably scarce; this a particularly well preserved copy of a fragile publication.
In his introduction, Hikozo Kikase remarks that his translation was undertaken as the behest of "my friend Mr. F. L. Coes so as to add a new variety to his collection of seven hundred copies of the original... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 141753
-
DARWIN, Erasmus. The Poetical Works.London : 1806
First edition of this posthumous collection placing Darwin's exuberant and eccentric inquiry into the Linnaean system in rhyming couplets alongside his poetic speculations on evolution, the whole much enlivened by numerous plates including a number by Blake and Fuseli. A wide-margined, ?large paper copy in a handsome Regency binding from the library... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 141677
-
TRANSTROMER, Tomas. Citoyens.Knotting, Bedfordshire : 1974
First English language edition, copy 100 of 150 copies, printed on Abbey Mills laid paper, this a presentation copy inscribed by Transtromer and additionally signed by the translator Robin Fulton on the colophon.
Copies numbered 1 to 50 were issued signed by Transtromer; this copy, though a later number, is presented by the poet with a lengthy... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 141215
-
TENNYSON, Alfred Lord. Poems.[London?] : 1862
First pirated edition of Tennyson's suppressed poems, taken from the Poems, Chiefly Lyrical of 1830 and the Poems of 1833, printed by J. Dykes Campbell and sold by the bookseller John Camden Hotten.
Tennyson took legal action, obtained an injunction to prevent its sale, and extracted an apology and 100 damages from Hotten. The book was issued... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 130070
-
THOMAS, R. S. Destinations.Shipston-on-Stour : 1985
First and limited edition, one of 300 copies (this copy unnumbered and out of series), beautifully printed by Sebastian Carter at the Rampant Lions Press. Although Thomas's poetry is "commonly renowned for pessimism and distress... Destinations is the neglected mainspring of the poet's philosophical turning towards affirmation" (Christopher Morgan,... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 123679
-
(BROOKE, Rupert, et al.) MARSH, Edward, ed. Georgian Poetry 1911-1912.London : [1913?]
The first volume of Eddie Marsh's Georgian Poetry series, with the signatures of every one of the poets involved. Marsh himself has signed the page at the end of his prefatory note, and facing the contents pages are found the signatures of all 17 of the contributing poets (including Rupert Brooke, whose signature is uncommon). Robert Bridges, who was... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 141949
-
UPDIKE, John. Facing Nature.New York : 1985
First edition, first printing, of Updike's seventh collection of poetry. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 128336
-
GRAVES, Robert. Selected Poetry and Prose.London : 1961
First edition, first impression. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 141016
-
GRAVES, Robert. Contemporary Techniques of Poetry.London : 1925
First edition, first impression. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 141017
-
GRAVES, Robert. Poems 1930-1933.London : 1933
First edition, first impression. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 140726
-
DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Guards Came Through.London : 1919
First edition, first impression, of this collection of poetry, comprising largely of poems relating to war. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 140750
-
MARKS, Herbert H. Pax Obbligato.London : [1937]
First edition, first impression. Learn More£60.00Stock Code: 140716
-
PUDNEY, John. Beyond the Disregard.London : 1943
First edition, first impression, of the author's second collection of poetry. Learn More£40.00Stock Code: 140600
-
STEVENS, Wallace. Parts of a World.New York : 1942
First edition, first printing. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 140586
-
(DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred.) STOPES, Marie Carmichael. Lord Alfred Douglas.London : 1949
First edition, first impression. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 140590
-
WYNDHAM-LEWIS, D. B. Ronsard.London : 1946
First UK edition, third impression, of the author's biography of the French Renaissance poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585). The first edition was published in the US and UK simultaneously, with the first impression appearing in 1944. Learn More£25.00Stock Code: 140591
-
GRAVES, Robert. Steps.London : 1958
First edition, first impression of this collection of writings. Learn More£60.00Stock Code: 140494
-
NERUDA, Pablo. The Heights of Macchu Picchu.London : 1966
First English-language edition of Neruda's masterpiece, the publisher's copy signed for him by the poet on the front free endpaper, "Pablo Neruda, 1970", with the bookplate of Tom Maschler to front pastedown. Maschler was the head of Jonathan Cape, and a hugely influential figure in 20th-century literature: he had a particular genius for bringing world-class... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 132730
-
THOMAS, Dylan. Poems.New York : 1971
First US edition, first printing, inscribed by Daniel Jones, the editor of this volume and a close friend of Dylan Thomas since childhood, on the front pastedown to his wife, "To Irene, with love from Dan. 23rd November 1971", and accompanied by an autograph letter signed from Edith Sitwell to Jones, discussing Erich Fried's German translation of Under... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 140659
-
![Hebrew Melodies; [bound after:] Lara, a Tale.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/131641.jpg)
BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Hebrew Melodies; [bound after:] Lara, a Tale.London : 1815
First edition, first issue of Hebrew Melodies, marking the first appearance in print of "She Walks in Beauty", among the most famous poems in the English language. Hebrew Melodies is bound after the fifth edition of Lara, which was first published in 1814. John Murray published Byron's poems in a uniform size, and it was common for contemporary owners... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 131641
-
CLUTTON-BROCK, Arthur. Simpson's Choice.London : 1915
First edition, first impression, one of 500 copies printed (this copy unnumbered). Simpson's Choice was the first work to be published at the Omega Workshop, which was founded in July 1913, and was to be one of only four books completed by the press.
The original prospectus (not present here) stated the intention of this enterprise, declaring that... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 141226
-
(EVANS, Walker.) CRANE, Hart. The BridgeParis : 1930
First edition, first impression, number 89 of 200 copies on Holland Paper from a total limited edition of 284 copies. The Bridge was Crane's only attempt at a long poem, inspired by his view of the Brooklyn Bridge from his apartment in Columbia Heights, and includes three plates from photographs of the bridge by his friend Walker Evans. Harold Bloom... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 135122
-
BEERBOHM, Max. Autograph manuscript draft poem, "To W.S."June 1914
A choice Beerbohm manuscript, a deft sonnet in honour of the painter Walter Sickert (1860-1942), invoking Whistler and other figures of Max's youth, and the music halls "The Hoxton Palace of Varieties" and reflecting upon the passage of time and enduring presence of Sickert, who was in 1914 working in experimental modes as painter and essayist. Sickert... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 135882
-
SPENDER, Stephen. Ruins and Visions.London : 1942
First edition, first impression, presentation copy of a work rarely found inscribed, to his lifelong friend and fellow poet W. H. Auden on the half-title, "To Wystan, with love from Stephen. March 1942".
This is a key association, inscribed using Auden's first name, which was reserved for friends. Auden was a major influence on Spender: "A pontiff... Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 139371
-
[BRADLEY, Katharine, & Edith Cooper.] FIELD, Michael. Poems of Adoration.London & Edinburgh : [1912]
First edition of this collaboration by Edith Emma Cooper and her aunt and sometime lover Katharine Harris Bradley, pseudonymously-published as Michael Field. Their first publication as "Michael Field", Callirhoë (1884), was publicly well-received, with The Spectator greeting it "as a work of 'great promise', exhibiting 'the true poetic and... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 134560
-
BURNS, Robert. Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.Edinburgh : 1787
First Edinburgh edition, the second overall, in an attractive contemporary binding. This edition was preceded only by the highly rare Kilmarnock edition of 1786, from which it was expanded, containing twenty-two new pieces, including "To a Haggis", and the first appearance in print of "Death and Doctor Hornbook", which had been omitted from the Kilmarnock... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 141696
-
BELBEN, May. The Singing Heart.Bournemouth : 1928
First edition, second impression, signed by the author on front free endpaper verso, "from May Belben, Dec. 1928" and with a note on her own stationery inscribed, "with all good wishes from May Belben" (letterhead Forest Hill, Corfe Mullen, Wimborne, Dorset). A charming little volume printed on enamel paper; nature poetry of "simple sentiment" illustrated... Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 141508
