Poetry
-
BUNYAN, John. The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come:London : 1682
A rare lifetime edition, the eighth overall and one of the earliest obtainable, of "one of the most widely read texts in the English language" (Stableford, p. 56), first published in 1678. Often shared between readers, copies were read repeatedly; few survive and all lifetime editions are rare. Harrison calculated there are 38 known copies of the seven... Learn More£30,000.00Stock Code: 136155
-
AUDEN, W. H. Spain.London : 1937
First edition, first impression. It was written after Auden's visit to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, a troubling experience that left him morally ambivalent toward the Republican cause. He published this supportive poem on his return, however, to defend the Republicans against Nazism, which he viewed as the greater evil. The proceeds of the poem... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 141088
-
TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. The Works.London : 1888-91
A particularly handsome set of Tennyson's works. Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 135222
-
BROOKE, Rupert. The Collected Poems.London : 1928
Second edition, revised and reset. A handsomely bound copy. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 121618
-
SANDERS, Ed. Fuck God in the Ass.New York : 1967
First edition, one of 500 copies of the the "trade" issue of this thoroughly blasphemous and obscene product of the mimeograph revolution, comprising erotic poems by Ed Sanders (b.1939), leader of The Fugs, printed on lurid pink paper at his own Fuck You Press. The colophon on the rear advertises, aside from the trade edition, ten copies of the "Rough... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 141012
-
MACPHERSON, John. Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the ancient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots.London : 1768
First edition of the author's most important work, his posthumously published response to the Ossian controversy, written in part as a defence of the Ossianic poems but also to encourage wider appreciation of Scottish culture and literature.
A Scottish minister and a recognized Celtic authority on antiquities, Macpherson had met James Macpherson... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140867
-
BUKOWSKI, Charles; Michael Montfort; Gerry Locklin. Poop.Ventura : 2003
First edition, first printing, number 42 of 100 copies only. Bukowski's heretofore unpublished poem, Poop, reminisces about his uncomfortable childhood relationship with his parents and its ensuing constipation. It is accompanied by pictures of the writer taken by Michael Montfort over a decade of friendship and drinking, "you should enjoy... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 140947
-
MARCEAU, Marcel. Les rêveries de Bip.Paris : 1978
First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the half-title "A Hubert Juin, de tout coeur, Bip flower, Marcel Marceau 1978". Marcel Marceau (1923-2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona as "Bip the Clown". The recipient, in fact Hubert Loescher (1926-1987), was a Belgian poet, novelist,... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140934
-
(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
-
THOMAS, Dylan. Deaths and Entrances. Poems.London : 1946
First edition, first impression, in exceptional condition, of Thomas's collection of poems including his much-loved ode to the vivacity of youth, "Fern Hill". Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 141051
-
(WORLD WAR I.) Pages de Guerre.Paris : 1915-16
First edition, first printing, one of 100 on Japon paper, this one unnumbered. This illustrated collection of poems from the First World War was sold for the benefit of artists and craftsmen of the book industry who were wounded in that war. The contributing authors include Émile Verhaeren for Crime allemand, Léon Bloy for Nous ne sommes... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 140915
-
(BASKIN, Leonard.) HUGHES, Ted. Moortown Elegies.London : 1978
First edition, first impression, letter M of 26 extra-limited copies lettered A-Z, inscribed by the author on the limitation page to his sister, "For Olwyn, Ted Hughes". Hughes was very close to his sister Olwyn. After Plath's suicide in 1963 Olwyn helped to bring up their children, became her brother's literary agent, established the Rainbow Press... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 126485
-
FIELD, Alice Withrow. Poems.London : 1932
First edition, number 35 of 250 copies only. Alice Withrow Field (1909-1960) was a sex researcher, criminologist and social scientist, whose seminal work Protection of Women and Children in Soviet Russia was also published in 1932. Her papers are now held at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University.... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 139595
-
SHAKESPEARE, William. Sonnets.Leipzig : 1910
First Rowohlt edition, one of five copies printed on vellum, this copy finely bound by the influential German binder Carl Sonntag jun. (1883-1930). Sonntag jun. was instrumental in the emergence and development of the German book art movement which preceded the First World War. He trained as a binder in the early 1900s in France and the UK, including... Learn More£6,750.00Stock Code: 139564
-
[NEUBURG, Victor Benjamin.] Swift Wings. Songs in Sussex.Steyning : 1921
First edition, number 197 of 550 copies on antique laid paper, a notably fresh example of Neuburg's second book of pagan poetry published at his Vine Press. This copy was presented as a gift with a charmingly poetic inscription on the front free endpaper by his son, Victor Edward Neuburg (1924-1996).
This selection of Neuburg's poetry follows... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 139457
-
DANTE ALIGHIERI. The Vision; or Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.London : 1819
Second and best edition of one of the most important translations of Dante of the Romantic era, following the very scarce first edition which appeared in 1814 in such a diminutive format that it was barely legible. When found, copies of this larger format edition are more usually seen rebound or with repair - this example survives unmolested in attractive... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 139500
-
SHAKESPEARE, William. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre Edition of The Sonnets.London : 1974
Signed limited edition, number 46 of 260 copies, signed on the introduction leaf by the actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft and on the limitation leaf by the calligrapher. Attractively bound, this edition of the sonnets is printed in calligraphic form, since, as Ashcroft writes in her introduction, "when first written the Sonnets circulated 'among his private... Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 140828
-
OXENFORD, Edward. Cat-Tales.New York : [c. 1885]
First and only edition of this lovely late 19th-century chromolithographed collection of poems for children. Rare, Worldcat locates two copies only (Philadelphia and Victoria, Australia); we were unable to trace any copies on Library Hub. Learn More£475.00Stock Code: 140673
-
(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£2,750.00Stock Code: 139994
-
(GRAVES, Robert, ed.) HARDY, Thomas, Siegfried Sassoon, et al. The Owl.London : 1919-23
First editions, first impressions, the complete set of this attractive post-war poetry magazine.
"Published during an era when the best-remembered literary magazines were decidedly experimental and political in tone, Robert Graves's short-lived quarterly The Owl is notable for its purposeful conservatism. As the forward to the first issue affirms,... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 139995
-
WILDE, Oscar. De Profundis.London : 1905
First edition, one of 200 copies of the deluxe issue on handmade paper and specially bound, this being a particularly scarce presentation copy from Robert Ross with his compliments slip laid in.
De Profundis was the only literary work Wilde produced during his two years in Reading Gaol (1895-97), being eventually published five years after his death... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 140889
-
(FLINT, William Russell, illus.) HERRICK, Robert. One Hundred and Eleven Poems.London : 1955
First edition, number 529 of 445 copies bound thus; a further 105 signed copies with eight extra plates were also issued, all printed at the artist's expense. Sir William Russell Flint (1880-1969), was described by Charles Wheeler, president of the Royal Academy, as an artist of "a steady hand, keen eye and gay spirit in a shaky world" (ODNB). His illustrations... Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 140576
-
SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. The Poetical Works.London : 1839
First collected edition, highly desirable in a contemporary binding in such nice condition. Mary Shelley's collected edition of her husband's poetical works established Shelley finally and irreversibly amongst the great poets of the English language. Pirate editions of Shelley's works had persuaded his father, Sir Timothy, that all hope of obscurity... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 140275
-
MAGALLON, Xavier de. L'Ombre.[Paris] : 1934
First edition thus, first printing, number XIV of 26 copies on Arches, with an original Moreau-inspired etching of angel-airman falling numbered 6/120 and signed by Pierre Pascal; from a total edition limited to 110 copies.
This poetic tribute to an airman killed in the First World War, was written by Xavier de Magallon (1866-1956), marquis of Magallon... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 140842
-
(DUNCAN, Isadora.) DUNOYER DE SEGONZAC, André (illus.), & Fernand Divoire. Dessins sur les danses d'Isadora Duncan.Paris : [c. 1910]
First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed by both authors on the verso of front wrapper "A Monsieur G. de Pawlowski, en hommage, D. Divoire; Hommage de A. D. de Segonzac". This is one of 32 copies only, this one unnumbered, of Segonzac's drawings of Isadora Duncan's dance moves. Duncan theorised a completely new form of dance that originated... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 140825
-
(JAPANESE FAIRY TALES.) The Wooden Bowl.Tokyo : [1934]
First edition thus, second overall, in large format and on crêpe-paper (the crêpeing process was applied after printing), and the 16th title in Hasegawa's "Fairy Tale" books series, published between 1885 and 1903. The Wooden Bowl tale was first published in 1887, on plain paper, and reprinted around two years later in the same format.
Takejirō... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 140781
-
GRAVES, Robert. Life of the Poet Gnaeus Robertulus Gravesa.Deià : 1990
Signed limited edition, one of 150 numbered copies hand printed and bound in vellum. Signed on the limitation page by the printer Tomás Graves, the illustrator Alice Meyer Wallace, and the binder Carmen García-Gutierrez. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 140812
-
SASSOON, Siegfried. Something About Myself.Worcester : 1966
First edition, first impression, printed on the occasion of the author's 80th birthday from the manuscript of More Poems which Sassoon wrote in 1897, when he was 11 years old. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 140753
-
BARLOW, Jane. The End of Elfintown.London : 1894
First edition of this interesting contribution to Victorian fairy literature by Irish-born poet and writer Jane Barlow (1857-1917). The work is exquisitely illustrated in a notably Pre-Raphaelite style by Laurence Housman (1865-1959), who likewise designed the art nouveau cover. Barlow was close friends with fellow Irish poets Katherine Tynan and William... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 135808
-
ELDRIDGE, Paul. I Bring a Sword.New York : 1945
First edition, first printing, presentation copy from the author, inscribed one the half-title, "For Dorothy Tierney Keith, Very cordially, Paul Elridge". Dorothy Tierney was an American actor who appeared in many Broadway plays, including My Golden Girl (1920), The Checkerboard (1920) and Dawn (1924); she was the fourth wife... Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 139312
-
PATCHEN, Kenneth & Charles Mingus. The Living Theatre Presents - The Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop with Kenneth Patchen.New York : 1959
"In the last two weeks of March 1959, the jazz bassist Charlie Mingus and the beat poet Kenneth Patchen performed on stage together at the Living Theatre in New York City. Mingus and his band improvised to jazz themes at the back, while Patchen read simultaneously from his poetry at the front. The Patchen/Mingus performances marked the climax of the... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 130511
-
FENTON, James. Children In Exile.Edinburgh : 1983
First edition, first impression. Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 140847
-
FENTON, James. The Memory of War.Edinburgh : 1982
First edition, first impression. Signed by Fenton on the title page. With a flyer from the Poetry Book Society loosely inserted. Learn More£60.00Stock Code: 140809
-
PAUL, Eden & Cedar. The Appreciation of Poetry.London : 1920
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy inscribed the 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
-
GRAVES, Robert. No More Ghosts.London : 1940
First edition, first impression. Learn More£85.00Stock Code: 140813
-
(ROBINSON, W. Heath.) KIPLING, Rudyard. A Song of the English.London : [c.1915]
A handsome copy of Kipling's classic, with Robinson's superb illustrations. "This poem originally appeared in The English Illustrated Magazine, May, 1893, prior to its inclusion in The Seven Seas" (Livingston, p. 74), three years later, from which this edition is reprinted. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 139898
-
AUDEN, W. H. Poems.London : 1933
Second and enlarged edition, first printing, presentation copy, familiarly inscribed by Auden using his first name reserved for friends in the month of publication on the front free endpaper, "To Elinor Loring, with best wishes, Wystan Auden. Nov. 1933"; rarely encountered inscribed. First published in 1930, this revised edition contains seven new poems.... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 139518
-
BROWNING, Robert. Poems.London : 1912
A handsomely bound copy of the Oxford Edition, first published in 1905. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140676
-
QUILLER-COUCH, Arthur. The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.Oxford : 1912
A handsomely bound edition of Quiller-Couch's collection of English poetry, first published in 1900. "This volume soon became the standard anthology of English verse and sold nearly a million volumes during Quiller-Couch's lifetime" (ODNB). Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 140674
-
(BAUMANN, Gustave, illust.) BANNING, Kendall. Pirates! or, The Cruise of the Black Revenge.Chicago : 1918
First trade edition, first printing, of this collection of 13 poems and accompanying woodcuts, following the limited edition of 525 copies in a larger format on handmade paper published by the Brothers of the Book in 1916. The publisher, Laurence Woodworth was the scrivener for the Brothers of the Book, a small private press "made up of those who like... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140322
-
(BRITISH POETS.) Aldine Edition of the British Poets.London : 1831-1852
A very pretty set of Pickering's Aldine Edition of the British poets, celebrated both for the elegance of the typography and the diligence of its editors. The two-decade long publishing project brings together a vast selection of the works of British writers, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spencer, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Swift and Gray. Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 139248
-
ROSSETTI, Christina. Poems.London : 1892
Arthur Edward Waite's copy of this attractive collection of Christina Rossetti's poems, with his bookplate to the front pastedown. This copy has the contemporary ownership inscription of Waite's muse and great love Dora Stuart Menteath to the front free endpaper, "Dora Stuart Menteath, Feb 23rd 1893". Waite met Dora in 1886 and the two fell almost immediately... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 130308
-
YEATS, W. B. The Variorum Edition of the Poems.New York : 1957
Signed limited edition, number 381 of 825 copies signed by Yeats, and issued posthumously. The limitation sheets were signed by the author before his death in 1939, and retained by the publisher until the publication of this edition, which was deferred until after the war. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 112375
-
ACKROYD, Peter; Kevin Stratford; Graham Walker. The Works.No place : [c. 1970]-71-73
First editions, first impressions, of these three early Ackroyd publications.
The Works is Ackroyd's first appearance in print, Ouch is his first solo publication, and London Lickpenny, one of 500 copies only, was his second solo publication. All three works come from the library of Martin S. Golding, librarian and director... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140689
-
WHITMAN, Walt. Ode a la France.Paris : 1917
First separate edition, first printing, one of 556 copies only, of this translation of Whitman's poem "O Star of France" dated 1870-71, which was first published in Leaves of Grass. Combet-Descombes's illustrations evoke the landscapes of the war-torn country after the Franco-Prussian War of July 1870 - May 1871, which marked the end of French... Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 140650
-
SHAKESPEARE, William. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre Edition of The Sonnets.London : 1974
Signed limited edition, number 132 of 260 copies, signed on the introduction leaf by the actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft and on the limitation leaf by the calligrapher. This edition of the sonnets is printed in calligraphic form, since, as Ashcroft writes in her introduction, "when first written the Sonnets circulated 'among his private friends'... it seems... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140685
-
DICKEY, James. The Zodiac.Bloomfield Hills, MI : 1976
First edition, number 39 of 61 copies signed by the author with a single leaf of the typescript working draft bound in, Dickey's manuscript corrections in ink. A trade issue was released by Doubleday later in the same year. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 140558
-
(KELMSCOTT PRESS.) SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles. Atalanta in Calydon:Hammersmith : 1894
First Kelmscott edition, one of 250 copies on paper; a further 8 copies printed on vellum were also issued. Swinburne was a warm admirer of the Kelmscott Press books, and "when Atalanta (which was first published in 1865) was reprinted by Morris, Swinburne wrote to him that it was 'certainly one of the loveliest examples of even your incomparable press'"... Learn More£4,000.00Stock Code: 140418
-
DANTE ALIGHIERI. The Vision; or Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.London : 1819
Second and best edition of one of the most important translations of Dante of the Romantic era, following the very scarce first edition which appeared in 1814 in such a diminutive format that it was barely legible.
"In January 1797 Cary began his translation of Dante's Divina commedia into blank verse. He started with the Purgatorio in 1797-8, but... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 139502
-
SCHUYLER, James, & Helena Hughes. Collab.New York : 1969
First edition, limited issue, one of 200 unnumbered copies. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 140172
-
WHITE, Gleeson, & Charles Shannon, eds. The Pageant.London : 1896-7
First editions, first impressions. All published of a typically unfeasible 1890s venture, an artistic and literary collaboration between the "Rhymers' Club" decadents and the pre-Raphaelite aesthetes, and others, including work by Max Beerbohm, Robert Bridges, Edward Burne Jones, Charles Conder, Walter Crane, Austin Dobson, Ernest Dowson, Richard Garnett,... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 140450
-
MORRIS, William. The Earthly Paradise.London : 1896
An attractively bound set of Morris's epic poem The Earthly Paradise. "The poem that made Morris famous" was first published from 1868 to 1870 and tells the story of a band of 14th-century Norsemen who flee the Black Death in search of the reputed utopian "earthly paradise 'where none grow old'" (ODNB). The first Kelmscott Press edition was... Learn More£425.00Stock Code: 139927
-
SCHUYLER, James. A Sun Cab.New York : 1972
First edition, limitied issue, one of 300 unnumbered copies, of which 26 were lettered A-Z and signed by the poet and the artist. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 140170
-
HUGHES, Ted. Collected Animal Poems.London : 1995
Number 73 of 292 uncorrected proof copies, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his son on the limitation page, "For Nicholas, Many beasts that escaped the albion, and some that didn't, love Daddy". This copy is from the library of Frieda Hughes, daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, though unmarked as such. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 126477
-
HOUSMAN, A. E. Autograph letters to Professor Donald Robertson.Cambridge : 1920-36
An exceptional collection of autograph letters signed from poet and classicist A. E. Housman (1859-1936) to Donald Struan Robertson (1885-1961 - a stellar Greek scholar attached to Trinity College, Cambridge, from his undergraduate days until his death) and his wife. He was particularly respected for his work on Apuleius, and was Regius Professor of... Learn More£10,000.00Stock Code: 119798
-
ARNOLD, Matthew. Poetical Works.London : 1910
Handsomely presented copy of Arnold's complete poems, first published in 1890, this being the 14th impression. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140552
-
OWEN, Wilfred, & Jon Stallworthy (ed.) The complete poems and fragments.London & Oxford : 1983
First edition, review copy, with the loosely inserted publishers' review and press release sheets, of wartime poet Wilfred Owen's works. The first collection of Owen's poems was published two years after his death, in 1920, with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), and was followed by another in 1931, edited by the poet Edmund Blunden (1896-1974).... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 140499
-
THOMAS, Dylan. Deaths and Entrances. Poems.London : 1946
First edition, first impression, of Thomas's collection of poems, including his much-loved ode to the vivacity of youth, "Fern Hill". Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140059
-
GRAY, Thomas. An Elegy.Chicago & New York : [c.1900]
An attractive edition of Gray's Elegy in a charming unsigned contemporary binding. Gray's Elegy was originally published privately by Horace Walpole in June 1750 and distributed amongst his connections in the fashionable classes. It was then published for the public in a quarto pamphlet on 15 February 1751; "the poem was an instant... Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 139593
-
(GONNE, Maud, illus.) YOUNG, Ella. Celtic Wonder-Tales.Dublin : 1910
First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the original front free endpaper "To John Varian, With Greeting from Ella Young", and with over ten annotations in ink by Young.
The recipient, John Osborne Varian (1863-1931), was an Irish-American poet and a leader within the theosophist utopian community of Halcyon,... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 139842
