Poetry
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SHAKESPEARE, William. The Poems and Sonnets.London : 1903
An attractively bound copy of this limited edition printed on handmade paper, number 23 of 400 copies.
In his introduction to the present volume, scholar and poet Edward Dowden (1843-1913), writes that, when we read Shakespeare's poetry, we learn that he "was capable of measureless personal devotion; that he was tenderly sensitive, sensitive... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 147775
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RIMBAUD, Arthur. A Season in Hell.London : [1932]
First edition in English, first impression, number 537 of 600 copies only. First published in 1873, this surreal opium-influenced prose poem was finished in a frenzy after the break-up of Rimbaud's relationship with Verlaine who shot him with a revolver in the summer of that year. The dust jacket is very scarce. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 148025
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BRAUTIGAN, Richard. Please Plant This Book.San Francisco / Santa Barbara : 1968
First edition, sole impression, a scarce complete set of these eight poems by Richard Brautigan printed on the back of coloured seed packets.
Copies were issued for free with the injunction that they be planted: "The time is right to mix sentences, sentences with dirt and the sun with punctuation and the rain with verbs, and for worms to pass... Learn More£1,100.00Stock Code: 148029
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ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel. The Blessèd Damozel.Aiken : 1900
First edition thus, number 25 of 500 copies printed on Whatman paper, one of 100 only illuminated in water-colours. This copy has a lithographic illustration, after the author and printed on Japanese vellum, loosely inserted. A very attractive printing of Rossetti's Blessed Damozel, the most famous of his poems, first published in 1850. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 148030
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BUKOWSKI, Charles. Shakespeare Never Did This.San Francisco : 1979
First edition, first impression, signed on the title page by Montfort and Bukowski. This is a fresh copy of "a wryly comic view of Europe as only Bukowski could see it and a moving journey back to his lost past and the small town of his birth (Andernach, Germany) via his triumphant tour as a literary celebrity" (front flap). Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 148045
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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,... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 146519
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CARNEVALI, Emanuel. A Hurried Man.Paris : [1925]
First edition, first impression, of the only work by Italian writer Emanuel Carnevali (1897-1942) to be published in his lifetime. This book is uncommonly found, especially in such good condition.
After moving to the United States in 1914 at the age of 16, Carnevali became friends with poets such as William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound and... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 147823
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PLATH, Sylvia. Ariel.London : 1965
First edition, first impression. Plath's most enduring poetry book, published two years after her suicide, edited by Ted Hughes and with an introduction by Robert Lowell. Plath believed her Ariel poems to be the best she had ever produced, "announcing to her mother that 'they will make my name'" (ODNB). Learn More£1,575.00Stock Code: 144272
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COPE, Wendy. Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis.London : 1986
First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed on the title page to the poet and counterculture figure, Felix Dennis (1947-2014) "To Felix from a poet who enjoys your work, Wendy Cope", and with Dennis's bookplate to the front pastedown. This is a lovely association copy. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 147945
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BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Marino Faliero.London : 1821
First edition, second issue, with the Doge's speech on p. 151 starting "His crimes!" and lasting seven lines (changed from the first issue beginning "What crimes?" followed by five-and-a-half lines, in a superb contemporary binding.
Marino Falerio is a verse tragedy written by Byron after visiting the Palazzo Ducale in Venice and discovering... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 147916
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RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles. The Springtide of Life.London : 1918
First Rackham edition, signed limited issue, number 631 of 765 copies signed by the artist. A contemporary review described the edition as "one of his best... Rackham's delicate and romantic fancy is in sensitive harmony with Swinburne's poems and his pictures show that he understands no less than did the poet" (The Publisher's Weekly, vol. 94, 1918,... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 147713
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RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); BALLADS; British. Some British Ballads.London : [1919]
First Rackham edition, signed limited issue, number 113 of 575 copies signed by the artist. Some British Ballads collects 44 songs and poems from across the country. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 147697
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HAGGIN, Blanche Butterworth. Le Livre D'Amour.New York : 1887
First edition of this lavish book of French love poetry, number 19 of 20 large paper copies printed on Japon, numbered and initialled by the editor Blanche Butterworth Haggin on the limitation page, in an exquisitely produced binding by one of the most famous and important fin de siècle French binders, Léon Gruel's atelier, in beautiful condition.
The... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 144850
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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
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SYMONS, Arthur. Amoris Victima.London : 1897
First edition, number 4 of 25 large paper copies, the limitation being in the hand of the publisher, Leonard Smithers, of a total edition of 425 copies. This collection of poems was inspired by a woman called "Lydia" who Symons had met in either 1893 or 1894 (Munro, Arthur Symons, p. 54.) In it, Lydia was "admirably cast for the role of the enigmatic... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 124871
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NESBIT, Edith. A Pomander of Verse.London : 1895
First edition, one of 750 unnumbered copies. The front cover and title page were designed by Laurence Housman. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 122770
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ARNOLD, Matthew. The Forsaken Merman.London : 1900
First Jean Archer edition, this copy beautifully hand coloured, a stunning piece of arts and crafts design. Archer's illustrated edition is uncommon, with 15 copies held institutionally worldwide. In 1901 Dent released a further 50 copies of this work printed on Japon and 10 on vellum for binding by the Guild of Women Bookbinders.
This melancholy... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 147588
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SHAKESPEARE, William. A Collection of Poems, in Two Volumes;London : [1710-11]
Effectively the earliest obtainable printing of Shakespeare's major poetry, combining the complete uncorrupted text of the 1609 Sonnets with Lucrece and Venus and Adonis. Benson's 1640 edition of Shakespeare's Poems lacked both Lucrece and Venus and Adonis and its text of the Sonnets was both incomplete and bowdlerized - combining poems, mixing masculine... Learn More£22,500.00Stock Code: 134529
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LARKIN, Philip. Femmes Damnées.Oxford : 1978
First edition, sole separate printing, one of 400 unnumbered copies. The poem was originally written in 1943, just after Larkin graduated from Oxford. The short biography on the verso contains a note in which Larkin recounts that, "The piece is evidence that I once read at least one 'foreign poem', though I can't remember how far, if at all, my verses... Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 147560
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SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe - SHARP, William. Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley.London : 1887
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication: "To Mathilde Blind. With the admiration & affection of her friend, William Sharp. Oct 27, '87".
Mathilde Blind (1841-1896) was a German-born English poet who lectured on Shelley and edited A Selection from the Poems of Percy Bysshe... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 146191
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BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. The Works.London : 1828-29
An attractively bound set of Byron's works, published by his friend and publisher John Murray (1778-1843). "With the breakdown of Byron's marriage in 1816 and his (self-) exile in Italy, their friendship was sustained in a correspondence that is one of the most lively and revealing of the period" (ODNB).
The last two volumes are published by... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 145838
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SASSOON, Siegfried. The War Poems.London : 1919
First edition, first impression. Collects a number of the author's best known war poems and much previously unpublished work. This in many ways is Sassoon's key poetical statement on the war. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 119624
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YEATS, W. B. The Shadowy Waters.London : 1900
First edition, first impression, one of 500 copies. Yeats's lyrical, visionary play - "a lengthy Wagnerian verse drama" (ODNB) - tells the love story of Forgael, a dreamer-pirate, and Dectora, a proud queen whose ship he captures. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 146908
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HOUSMAN, A. E. More Poems.London : 1936
First edition, first impression, deluxe limited issue, number 138 of 379 copies, published simultaneously with the trade edition. The deluxe issue was printed on handmade paper and includes an extra illustration, facing p. 32, which shows the original manuscript for the poem "Tarry, delight".
This edition was printed six months after Housman's... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 146925
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YEATS, W. B. In the Seven Woods:Dundrum : 1903
First edition, first impression, one of 325 copies, of the first title printed at the Dun Emer Press, this an appealing association copy, from the library of Yeats's friend and business adviser Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (1867-1962), book collector and director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (1908-37), with his ownership signature on the front... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 147175
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Deathwatch on the Southside.Cambridge, MA : 1968
First edition, number 120 of 150 copies, signed by the author and the translator. This is the first appearance of Deathwatch on the Southside in English; an earlier version entitled The Night They Kept Vigil in the South, with parallel Spanish text titled La noche que en el sur lo velaron, previously appeared in the Anthology of Contemporary Latin-American... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 146188
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LARKIN, Philip. Aubade.Madison, Wisconsin : 1980
First edition, first printing, number 175 of 250 copies, initialled by the author and the printer on the limitation leaf. "Aubade" was the final major poem published in Larkin's lifetime, having originally appeared in the Times Literary Supplement in 1977. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 147561
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PLATH, Sylvia. The Colossus & Other Poems.New York : 1962
First US edition, first printing, in exceptionally nice condition, of Plath's first and only collection of poetry issued during her lifetime. It was first published in the UK in 1960. Learn More£1,100.00Stock Code: 145549
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SITWELL, Edith. The Shadow of Cain.London : 1947
First edition, first impression. Learn More£35.00Stock Code: 147552
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SITWELL, Sacheverell. The Octogenarian.[Brackley : 1977
First edition thus, inscribed on the first page to the literary agent "A birthday celebration to David Higham with all best wishes from Sacheverell 12 November 1977". Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 147553
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SAPPHO - CARMAN, Bliss. Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics.London : 1906
First De La More Press edition, first impression. Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics was the first comprehensive and fully imagined rendering into English of the fragmentary poems of Sappho.
In 1902 Mitchell Kennerley gave Carman a copy of H. T. Wharton's Sappho (1885) and suggested that he poeticise Wharton's more literal translations. Inspired by... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 147542
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AUDEN, W. H. Poems.Cincinnati : 1964
Limited edition, number 41 of 500 copies of this facsimile of the author's first book (a great rarity in the original 1928 edition), familiarly inscribed by him using his first name reserved for friends, "Bill Gray from Wystan Auden", his printed name struck through.
Dr William ("Woods") Shelton Gray, Jr (1926-1993) fostered friendships with... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 146820
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WARHOL, Andy (illus.); Ed Sanders (ed.). FUCK YOU / a magazine of the arts, our third anniversary Mad Motherfucker issue!A secret location on the Lower East Side, New York City : 1965
First edition of this rare issue of Ed Sanders's erotic counterculture magazine, with the coveted and fragile thermofaxed front cover. The cover features a still from Warhol's banned pansexual art-porno Couch (1964), showing Gerard Malanga, Rufus Collins, and Kate Helicser making love on the Factory couch. It also includes the significant pirated first... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 144818
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SHAKESPEARE, William. The Works.London : 1881
An attractively bound set of Shakespeare's works.
Originally published in 1860, it was edited by Charles Cowden Clarke and his wife, Mary (née Novello). Charles was a Shakespeare scholar and, in his youth, a close friend of John Keats, who in his poem "To Charles Cowden Clarke", wrote that his friend had "first taught me all the sweets of song"... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 145921
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NERUDA, Pablo. Alturas de Macchu Picchu.Santiago de Chile : [1948]
First edition, first printing, of Neruda's masterpiece, number 185 of 500 copies exclusively destined to be sold to the Libreria Neira subscribers, from a total edition of 520 copies. This book is rarely found unrestored, as here.
The Heights of Macchu Picchu was first published in English in 1966. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 147570
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BROOKE, Rupert. The Collected Poems.New York : 1945
A handsomely bound copy of Rupert Brooke's collected poetry, first published in 1915. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 147568
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ELIOT, T. S. (trans.); PERSE, St John. Anabasis.London : 1930
First edition, first impression, number 56 of 350 copies signed by Eliot, printed on handmade paper; there were also 1,650 copies unsigned and bound in blue-green cloth published simultaneously. This handsome Faber edition prints Eliot's translation in parallel with the original French text. Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 146938
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![[Four Quartets:] East Coker; The Dry Salvages; Burnt Norton; Little Gidding.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/4/143338.jpg)
ELIOT, T. S. [Four Quartets:] East Coker; The Dry Salvages; Burnt Norton; Little Gidding.London : 1940-41
First edition, first impression, of each of the separately published Four Quartets, except East Coker, which is the third (first Faber) edition as usual, preceded by the two rare New English Weekly Supplement printings of that poem alone.
Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 143338
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OLIVER, Mary. West Wind.Boston & New York : 1997
Uncorrected proof copy of the first edition, signed by the author on the title page, scarce thus. West Wind is the thirteenth collection by Oliver, containing 40 pieces of lyric poetry and prose.
Mary Oliver (1935-2019) lived for most of her life in Massachusetts, writing poems from her home in Provincetown, Cape Cod. She won the Pulitzer Prize... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 147173
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OLIVER, Mary. Blue Pastures.San Diego, New York & London : 1995
Uncorrected proof copy of the first edition, signed by the author on the title page, scarce thus. Blue Pastures contains 15 prose pieces by Oliver, inspired by her three "sustaining passions": "love of the wild world, love of literature, love for and from another person" (p. 119).
Mary Oliver (1935-2019) lived for most of her life in Massachusetts,... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 147170
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OLIVER, Mary. The Night Traveler.Clevaland : 1978
First edition, first printing, of the third book of poems by Oliver, in a scarce chapbook printed by Bits Press. Susan Salter Reynolds has described the "Blake-eyed revelatory quality" of Oliver's writing, and so the woodcut by William Blake reproduced on the front cover is a fitting compliment to her collection, which includes "Spring", one of her... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 146945
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MAPPLETHORPE, Robert (photo.); RIMBAUD, Arthur. A Season in Hell.[New York] : 1986
First edition of this translation by Paul Schmidt, limited to 1,000 numbered copies signed by both Schmidt and Mapplethorpe; with the original 4-page long "Limited Editions Club Letter" loosely inserted.
First published in 1873, this prose poem was finished in a frenzy after the break-up of Rimbaud's relationship with Verlaine who shot him with... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 139013
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RIMBAUD, Arthur; VIEILLARD, Roger (illus.) Hommage A Rimbaud.Paris : 1945
First edition, first printing, inscribed in pencil "à Ralph Kirkpatrick pour 'les possibilités harmoniques' Roger Vieillard amicalement" inside the first blank, including two musical drawings, further drawings on the title page with the caption "pour Ralph Kirkparick" signed with Vieillard's "RV" monogram and dated "1942-1971-1982". This copy number... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 135463
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BLAKE, William. Songs of Innocence.Clairvaux : 1954
First edition thus, copy E of 26 lettered copies, from a total edition of 1,600 copies; the lettered copies were reserved for Lessing J. Rosenwald, the Library of Congress, the Trustees of the Blake Trust, and the publishers. This is a copy of Rosenwald, subsequently presented by him with a New Year card loosely inserted, reading "Best Wishes for a... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 147471
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REMINGTON, Frederic, & Owen Wister. Done In The Open.New York : 1902
First edition, first issue, of this collection of Remington's striking illustrations of the American West. It was published simultaneously by P. F. Collier & Son. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 142057
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THOMAS, Edward. The Woodland Life.Edinburgh and London : 1897
First edition of the author's first book, second state of the binding (no priority) with the decorative panel on the front cover 54 mm from the fore-edge. This debut collection, published when the author was only 19, contains criticism and musings which began his career as a nature writer.
This copy has a distinguished provenance, bearing on... Learn More£475.00Stock Code: 146508
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RADCLYFFE-HALL, Marguerite. Poems of the Past & Present.London : 1910
First edition, first impression. An attractive copy, in a variant purple cloth, of Radclyffe Hall's third published work. Poems of the Past & Present was dedicated to Hall's lover, Mabel Batten. The collection memorializes their relationship; the first poem, "A Dedication" gives thanks for Batten's love, and the final poem, "Postscript", acknowledges... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 131465
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SMITH, Patti. A Useless Death.New York : 1972
First edition, number 246 of 300 copies signed by the author. An excellent copy of Smith's poem, the narrator waiting their turn on the scaffold while a queen and 30 of her ladies in waiting are forced to dig their own graves. The poem was published and distributed by Gotham Book Mart, where Smith acted as a book scout during her early years in New... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 145624
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GRAVES, Robert. Across the Gulf: Late Poems.Deià, Majorca : 1992
First and signed limited edition, number 102 of 175, signed by the members of the New Seizin Press: Beryl Graves, Lucia Graves, Dunstan Ward, Tomás Graves, and Carmen García Gutierrez. These previously unpublished poems were written by Graves in his seventies, and were posthumously selected by his wife Beryl Graves for the spiritual successor to Graves's... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 146160
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FLOWERS. The Lover's Language of Flowers;Wakefield : [1873]
An attractive collection of poetry and a dictionary of the emotions flowers express, by the anonymous "Authoress". From this work we learn that one should offer their love vervain to communicate their "irresistible influence", while offering hemlock means "You will cause my death".
The rise of floriography in England has been attributed to the... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 146013
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SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. Poems of West & East.London : 1917
First edition, first impression, of the author's first regularly published book. Sackville-West's collection of twenty-two poems, thirteen of which appear here for the first time, was written while living in Istanbul with her newly married husband Harold Nicolson, who was working as a diplomat there. Their house at Cihangir offered Vita her first garden... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 145998
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SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. Orchard and Vineyard.London : 1921
First edition, first impression, in the uncommon dust jacket, of the author's third book of poetry. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 145988
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HUGHES, Sean. My Struggle to Be Decent and Poems of Sadness and Light.[London] : 2013
First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To Tiff lots of love from S Hughes". Sean Hughes (1965-2017) was an Irish comedian, team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and author of five books, of which this was his last. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 145930
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HARDY, Thomas. Compassion.London : 1924
Limited edition, number 44 of 50 copies, signed by the publisher. Hardy's poem was first printed in The Times on 16 June 1924, and was quickly reprinted for Symons. "It was expressly stated in The Times that there was no copyright, and immediate moves were made to reprint the poem privately" (Purdy, p. 231).
Alphonse James Albert Symons (1900-1941)... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 146865
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YEATS, W. B.; Ernest Dowson, & others. The Book of the Rhymers' Club; The Second Book of the Rhymers' Club.London : 1892 & 1894
First editions, sole printings. The Rhymers' Club was founded by W. B. Yeats in 1890 as an informal poetry society that met at the Cheshire Cheese pub in Fleet Street (where Samuel Johnson, in an earlier age, also used to drink). This set includes both volumes published by the group, featuring poetry by Yeats and 12 other contributors: Ernest Dowson,... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 133920
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DOWSON, Ernest. Decorations:London : 1899
First edition of Dowson's attractively produced poetry collection, this copy from the library of Henry Head (1861-1940), poet and neurologist who specialised in the sensory nervous system, with his ownership inscription dated 29 July 1900 to front free endpaper. "It was knowledge of Head's intellectual interests that led Virginia Woolf's husband, Leonard,... Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 126828
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HORACE. Q. Horatii Flacci, quae supersunt, recensuit et notulis instruxit Gilbertus Wakefield.London : 1794
A striking copy of Horace's works, in the original Latin, "a very elegant and correct edition" (Dibdin). With the booklabel to the front doublures of literary journalist and author Charles Whibley (1859-1930), on whose recommendation T. S. Eliot was appointed to the editorship of Faber and Gwyer. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 146814
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POETRY - BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord, et al. Manuscript anthology: "Specimens of Miscellaneous Poetry with several Original Pieces."London : 1822
A lovely manuscript anthology of Romantic poetry, executed in 1822 and giving a valuable record of contemporary taste, with numerous poems by Lord Byron ("To Thirza", "The Destruction of Sennacherib", "Fare thee Well!", and "She walks in beauty...", to name but few), as well as others by Walter Scott, Robert Southey, Erasmus Darwin, and Samuel Rogers.... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 146459
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ALMANACK. Almanach des Dames pour l'an 1819.Tübingen & Paris : 1818
First edition of this handsomely bound early 19th century French ladies' almanac. It includes explanations of the pictured artworks, biographies of Joan of Arc and Blanche de Castille, numerous poems, excerpts from academic discussions on religion and other topics, and fragments from classical literature. This is a superbly preserved copy. Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 146460
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HUGHES, Ted. Rain-Charm for the Duchy and Other Laureate Poems.London : 1992
First edition, trade issue, presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper "For Dorothy and Ben, with much love, Ted, 28 August 1992," followed by a short poem, "The Royalist / Is afraid / The Queen's a pin / In a hand-grenade," and with a small correction in Hughes's hand to p. 7.
Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 146331
