Poetry
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VALE PRESS: WORDSWORTH, William. Poems.London : [1902]
First Vale Press edition, first impression.
Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), was an art nouveau designer who founded the Vale Press in 1894. Influenced by both the aesthetic movement and William Morris's designs, his Vale press books are more classical than medieval in style and "the distinct personal element in those books derives from the woodcut... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 144843
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DURRELL, Lawrence (trans.) Six Poems from the Greek of Sekilianos and Seferis.Rhodes : 1946
First edition of Durrell's English translation of two modern Greek poets, privately printed in a very small edition of about 50 copies on Rhodes, where Durrell was posted as a press attaché during the Second World war. WorldCat locates only eleven copies in libraries worldwide (nine in the USA, two in the UK, and one in Australia).
Durrell's... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 144827
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VALE PRESS: SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. The Poems.London : 1901-2
First Vale Press edition of Shelley's complete poems, following only a single-volume edition of Lyrical Poetry (1898, limited to 210 copies). The book was decorated and supervised by Charles Ricketts of the Vale Press.
Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), was an art nouveau designer who founded the Vale Press in 1894. Influenced by both the aesthetic... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 144840
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VALE PRESS: KEATS, John. The Poems.London : 1898
First Vale Press edition, one of 210 unnumbered copies on paper (a further 8 were issued on vellum), and superbly decorated by Ricketts of the Vale Press.
Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), was an art nouveau designer who founded the Vale Press in 1894. Influenced by both the aesthetic movement and William Morris's designs, his Vale press books are... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 144841
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CAVAFY, Constantine P. The Complete Poems.New York : 1961
First edition, first printing, of Cavafy's works translated by Rae Dalven, published with an introduction by W. A. Auden. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 144523
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SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. The Complete Poetical Works.London : 1885
A handsomely bound set of Percy Bysshe Shelley's complete poetry. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 144471
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DRYDEN, John. Original Poems.Glasgow : 1770
First Foulis duodecimo edition of Dryden's collected poetry, a pretty example in contemporary calf. The Foulis press, renowned for their elegant typography and the quality of their printing, had published Dryden's works once prior to this edition, in an octavo edition of 1756. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 144534
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WALDMAN, Anne. Baby Breakdown.New York : 1970
First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed on the half-title "For Joe, where would I be without you!! Anne, Nov. 23/70". The recipient is the writer and artist Joe Brainard (1942-1994) with whom Waldman wrote Self Portrait (1972) - a great Beat association.
Anne Waldman (b.1945) is a writer, experimental poet, and lecturer connected... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 144595
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NORSE, Harold (trans.) The Roman Sonnets of G. G. Belli.Highlands : 1960
First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper to fellow Beat Generation poet Gerard Malanga "For Gerard, Language & Light keep us going. Love, Harold Norse. San Francisco 19/XI/72".
The inscription was penned a few months after the publication of the first issue of Norse's Bastard Angel Magazine, for which... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 144532
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ADCOCK, A. St John. For Remembrance.London : 1918
First edition, first impression, of Adcock's memorial volume, giving biographies and poetical excerpts for 44 "Soldier Poets", 20 of which are portrayed. This book is uncommonly found, especially so in such good condition and with the jacket.
The dust jacket, which was designed by Eugene Hastain, bears on the front flap an advertisement ("It... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 144555
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YEATS, W. B. Some Passages from the Letters of AE to W. B. Yeats.Dublin : 1936
First edition, first impression; one of 300 copies. Letters to Yeats from his lifelong friend "AE" (Dublin-based mystical poet and painter George Russell: 1867 - 1935), between 1896 and 1932, collected and published in the year after his death. This copy bears some scholarly annotations in pencil. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 83423
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THOMAS, Edward - THOMAS, Helen. As it Was.London : 1926 & 1931
First edition, first impression, of Thomas's tender yet frank memoirs of her life with poet Edward Thomas, in elegant matching bindings.
Thomas began writing these memoirs in an attempt to lift herself from her depression following the death of her husband Edward Thomas in 1917. Two leaves at pp. 53-6 of As It Was were cancelled prior to publication... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 144490
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HOOD, Thomas. Poems.London : 1848
A handsomely bound copy of Hood's collected poems. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 144556
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YEATS, W. B. The Wild Swans at Coole.Dundrum : 1917
First and limited edition, one of 400 copies. One of Yeats's major poetry collections, the title was printed by Yeats's sister, Elizabeth Corbet. The collection includes the much-loved title poem, alongside one of his most enduring poems, "An Irish Airman Foresees his Death".
The Cuala Press, a co-operative business with Lily Yeats, was founded... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 143926
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YEATS, W. B. Michael Robartes and the Dancer.Dundrum : 1920
First edition, first impression, one of 400 copies printed and now very scarce. The significant English composer and co-founder of the original Glastonbury Festivals Rutland Boughton's copy, with his ownership inscription "R. Boughton, Glastonbury" to first blank and matching purple ink stamp to the title page.
Rutland Boughton (1878-1960) remains... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 143925
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CUALA PRESS: YEATS, W. B., & Dorothy Wellesley (eds.) A Broadside: No. 3 (New Series).Dublin : March 1937
First edition, one of 300 copies printed, of this attractive Cuala Press publication. Yeats's "The Three Bushes" was first published just two months prior in The London Mercury.
The Cuala Press Broadsides were issued monthly, with a bound set of the collected issues published at the end of the year in a smaller edition. The first series ran from... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140544
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ARNOLD, Matthew. Poetical Works.London : 1910
Handsomely presented copy of Arnold's complete poems, first published in 1890. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140552
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BROWNING, Robert. The Poetical Works.London : 1901
An attractively bound copy of Browning's poetry. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140251
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GINSBERG, Allen. Photographs.Altadena : 1990
First edition, first printing, inscribed copy. From an edition of 5,100 copies, this copy is inscribed by Ginsberg on the title page, "2/17/94, Allen Ginsberg, for Audrey Gaston", and with a large ink drawing across the title page spread featuring his favoured Blakean "Ah, Sunflower" growing under an "Ah" sun and other celestial shapes.
Ginsberg's... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 140264
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BROOKE, Rupert. The Collected Poems.London : 1960
A handsomely bound copy of Brooke's poems, the collection first published in July 1918. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 139862
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GRAY, Thomas. An Elegy.Chicago & New York : [c.1900]
An attractive gift edition of Gray's Elegy, with illustrations by Alfred Woodruff, 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... Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 139593
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FIELD, Alice Withrow. Poems.London : 1932
First edition, number 35 of 250 copies only, of this attractively produced and illustrated collection of poems. 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. This edition is now uncommon and has been traced at... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 139595
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WILLIAMS, Oscar (ed.) The War Poets.New York : 1945
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, inscribed by the editor on the day of publication on the front free endpaper, "For Jean Lanslow with love from Oscar Williams - editor - June 19 1945", the inscription continued by the founder of the John Day company: "And from Richard Walsh", and by two contributors, "from Hubert Creekmore" and "from... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 139656
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VERLAINE, Paul. Œuvres Complètes.Paris : 1919-20
A handsomely bound set of Verlaine's poems which includes his collections Poèmes saturniens (1866), Fêtes galantes (1869), Romances sans paroles (1874), Sagesse (1880), and Les Poètes maudits (1884). Romances sans paroles was inspired by Verlaine's relationship with his wife, Mathilde Mauté, and his lover, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Verlaine... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 138447
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CUNARD, Nancy. Poems (Two) 1925.London : 1930
First edition, one of 150 copies, this one unnumbered. Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 137307
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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).
It is exquisitely illustrated in a Pre-Raphaelite style by Laurence Housman (1865-1959), who also designed the art nouveau cover. Barlow was close friends with fellow Irish poets Katherine Tynan and William Butler... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 135808
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KIPLING, Rudyard. Debits and Credits.London : 1926
First edition, first impression, of this collection of 14 stories and 21 poems. While all of the stories were previously published, 19 of the poems are here published for the first time. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 144451
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CORNFORD, Frances. Poems.Hampstead : [1910]
First edition, first impression, of Cornford's second book, following the rare Holtbury Idyll (1908), and first poetry collection, including her poem "Youth", later titled "On Rupert Brooke", as well as the notorious "To a Fat Lady Seen from a Train", which became a much anthologized (and parodied) piece.
Frances Cornford (1886-1960, née Frances... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 144493
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POE, Edgar Allan. The Poetical Works.London : 1853
First edition thus, under the title of "The Poetical Works", published as part of Addey's Illustrated Classics series, this one dedicated to Rossetti. Hannay's collection was seen as the definitive collection of Poe's poetry, and "maintained its popularity for decades". An attractive early illustrated edition; preceded only by Vizetelly's Tales (1852).... Learn More£800.00Stock Code: 144318
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GRAVES, Robert, as John Doyle. The Marmosite's Miscellany.London : 1925
First edition, first impression. Robert Graves only used the pseudonym of John Doyle for this one work but he adopted a number of pen names throughout his early career, particularly for contributions to periodicals such as The Carthusian, The Spectator, and Woman's Leader. The Sussex ledge shows 106 copies sold by 6 January 1928.
This copy has... Learn More£575.00Stock Code: 144345
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UPDIKE, John. Sixteen Sonnets.Cambridge : 1979
Signed limited edition, special issue signed and numbered "R" on the limitation page, one of 26 lettered and hard-bound copies, inscribed on the first blank "For Anne Sissman, with admiration and affection, John", and with a typed letter to her, signed by John. From an edition limited to 276 signed copies.
The recipient, Anne Sissman, was the... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 144315
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ROBINSON, Charles (illus.); SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. The Sensitive Plant.London : [1911]
First Robinson edition, deluxe issue in vellum, retaining the rare dust jacket. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 144323
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FILLIOU, Robert. Longs poemes courts a terminer chez soi.Bruxelles Hamburg : 1984
First edition, one of 500 sets printed and now scarce, with only two recorded at auction. Filliou's text on the folder states that the postcards were issued in memory of Danish artist Arthur "Addi" Kopke (1928-1977), at whose gallery these poems were originally exhibited during his 1961 residence in Copenhagen with his wife Marianne.
These postcard... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143553
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BRONTË, Patrick. Cottage Poems.Halifax : 1811
First edition, sole impression, of this scarce debut collection of poems by the father of the Brontë sisters. Patrick Bronte's first published poem "Winter Evening Thoughts" had appeared in a local Shropshire newspaper in 1810. He then moved up to Yorkshire and had this collection of poems published in Halifax. Brontë would marry Maria Branwell in... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 133120
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Poems, chiefly lyrical.London : 1830
First edition of Tennyson's first solo poetry collection, a very commendable copy in the original boards.
The collection was preceded only by Poems by Two Brothers (1827), in which he appeared anonymously alongside his (in fact three) brothers. "Some of Tennyson's most enduring notes, elegiacally lyrical, with his riven sensibility... are especially... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 144305
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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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JOHNSON, Lionel. Poems.London : 1895
First edition, number 6 of 25 inscribed large-paper copies, inscribed by the author on the initial blank "Twenty-five copies of this edition. No. 6. Lionel Johnson".
"His reputation was confirmed by the publication of his Poems in 1895, which marks the high point in his career" (ODNB). Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 144311
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DULAC, Edmund (illus.); Edward FitzGerald (trans.) Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.London : [1909]
First Dulac edition, first impression. Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 132279
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RANSOM, John Crowe. Grace After Meat.London : 1924
First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper "Miss Laura M. Bragg, with the author's cordial regards, John Crowe Ransom, November 17, 1924". Uncommon inscribed; a great association copy.
Laura Bragg (1881-1978) notably co-founded the Poetry Society of South Carolina in 1920 as part of Charleston's renaissance.... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 144237
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ROBINSON, Edwin Arlington. The Town Down the River.New York : 1916
Second edition, inscribed on the front free endpaper "To Lewis Chase, From E. A. Robinson, 1917", and with Chase's pictorial bookplate to first blank. It was first published in 1910. Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) was an American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry on three occasions and was nominated four times for the Nobel Prize in literature.... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 144149
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FITZGERALD, Edward. Rubaiyát of Omar Khayyám.Portland : 1907
Ninth Mosher edition, first printing, one of 925 copies on Van Gelder paper, in a superb contemporary binding. It includes a "Toast to Omar Khayyam" and "To The Winds" by Theodore Watts-Dunton; "Edward Fitzgerald" by W. Irving Way; "Omar Khayyam" by Fitzgerald.
It also comprises the text of the first (1859), second (1868), and fourth editions... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 144208
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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... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 143928
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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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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
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JOHNSON, B. S. Poems Two.London : 1972
First edition, first impression, signed limited issue, number R of 26 copies for the author's use only, inscribed on the limitation page "R is for Rayner Heppenstall. 35/3/72". The recipient was British experimentalist and BBC radio producer Rayner Heppenstall (1911-1981). A further 100 copies were thus specially bound, numbered, and signed. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 144147
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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
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SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Posthumous Poems.London : 1824
First edition, first issue (without errata slip), in a very striking binding by Zaehnsdorf with their gilt stamp to the rear pastedown denoting exhibition-worthy work, and with appealing fin-de-siècle provenance (see below).
Edited by Mary Shelley, this collection contains hitherto unpublished poems - Julian and Maddalo (with its evocation of... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 141182
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HEANEY, Seamus. Station Island.New York : 1985
First US edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Martha, Sláinte! Seamus Heaney, April 1985". The author's sixth book of poetry, Station Island was first published in the UK the preceding year. Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 126159
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STEADMAN, Ralph (illus.); DURRELL, Lawrence; Sylvia Plath; and others. Steam Press Portfolio 2.London : 1974
First edition, number 48 of only 50 numbered copies, with each broadside numbered and signed by Steadman. All the poems are further signed by their respective authors, including Lyman Andrews, Asa Benveniste, Ruth Fainlight, and Alan Sillitoe, excepting Plath's for obvious reasons.
Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 100028
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OWEN. Wilfred. The Poems.London : 1931
First Blunden edition of Wilfred Owen's poems, first impression, number 23 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... Learn More£1,350.00Stock Code: 143660
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YEATS, W. B. Mosada.Dublin : October 1943
First Cuala press edition, limited issue. Number 40 of 50 copies, and, though uncalled for, this copy is signed by "George" Hyde-Lees, (1892-1968), the author's wife. Mosada was Yeats's first published work, and was first published in 1886 as an offprint from the Dublin University Review. That edition, of around 100 copies, is now "exceedingly rare"... Learn More£4,000.00Stock Code: 143922
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YEATS, W. B. Plays in Prose and Verse.London : 1922
First edition, first impression, a lovely copy, uncommon in the jacket.
This collection contains Yeats's plays: Cathleen ni Houlihan, The Pot of Broth, The King's Threshold, On Baile's Strand, The Shadowy Waters, Deridre, The Unicorn from the Stars (written in collaboration with Lady Gregory), The Green Helmet, The Hour-Glass and The Player... Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 143556
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HUGHES, Ted. Crow Wakes.Woodford Green, Essex : 1971
First edition, first printing, signed and numbered by Hughes not once but twice, one of the scarce 100 copies retained by the poet. The title page verso is signed "No. 28, Ted Hughes" and the front free endpaper signed and numbered "Ted Hughes 46/88". The printer Alan Tarling informed the bibliographers Sagar and Tabor that "These poems were excluded... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 125129
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HUGHES, Ted (ed.) By Heart.London : 1997
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy from Ted Hughes to his sister Olwyn Hughes, inscribed on the half-title: "For Olwyn with love from Ted Xmas 1997". With a manuscript correction by Hughes on page xiv, of "Welsh system" to "Welsh poetry", as is known in other copies inscribed by Hughes. Hughes was very close to his sister Olwyn. After... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143825
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ROSS, Alan. The Derelict Day.London : 1947
First edition, first impression of the author's first collection of poetry. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143787
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![A Shropshire Lad [together with] Last Poems.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/2/126238.jpg)
HOUSMAN, A. E. A Shropshire Lad [together with] Last Poems.Chipping Campden : 1929
First Alcuin Press edition, number 134 of 325 copies in total. First published in 1896 and 1922 respectively, this work collected together in two volumes what was then understood to be the entire corpus of Housman's published poetry. This book was handsomely printed in the private press manner on Batchelor handmade paper for the publishers by the Alcuin... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 126238
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CLARKE, Harry (illus.); GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust.London : 1927
Signed limited edition, number 910 of 1,000 copies signed by the artist. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 125665
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SHAKESPEARE, William. Venus and Adonis.Oxford : 1905
Limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies, in a superb binding by the Chelsea Bindery, of this Oxford University facsimile reprint of the earliest surviving editions of Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, the Sonnets, The Passionate Pilgrim, and the play Pericles, as a supplement to the reproduction of the First Folio issued by the Oxford University Press in... Learn More£1,800.00Stock Code: 65822
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BENTLEY, Nicolas (illus.); MORTON, John Bingham. 1933 and Still Going Wrong!London : 1932
First edition, first impression, of this collection of poetry satirising contemporary personality types. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 143762
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LORCA, Federico Garcia. Canciones.Madrid : 1929
Second edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed on the half-title to fellow "Generation of '27" group member "Para Guillermo de Torre lo salucha a la distancia, Federico Garcia Lorca", and with de Torre's purple ink ex libris stamp to verso of front free endpaper. A great association copy, connecting Spanish and South American literary circles.
Lorca... Learn More£6,750.00Stock Code: 143185
