Clearwater Books

JAMES AGEE. Permit Me Voyage. With a foreword by Archibald MacLeish. Yale University Press, ‘The Yale Series of Younger Poets’, New Haven 1934. First edition of the author’s first book, and his only collection of verse. Tall 8vo. 59pp + [i] publisher’s advertisements for other volumes in the series. The merest hint of browning to the free endpapers. A former owner bookplate to the front pastedown and a tiny dealer plate to the rear pastedown. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, somewhat torn, chipped and tender at the front panel-spine panel join, but essentially complete. The three-page foreword precedes thirty-four poems. This copy formerly from the library of author and bibliophile John Baxter, with a receipt to him laid-in. £325

CONRAD AIKEN. The Soldier. A poem. Editions Poetry, London 1946. First UK edition (originally published in the US two years previously), this copy inscribed by the author on the front endpaper and dated the year of publication. Slim 8vo. 40pp. Spine ends very lightly rubbed, endpapers a little spotted and printed on slightly sub-standard war-time paper-stock, yet still a very crisp and bright copy in tanned dust wrapper, a little chafed at extremities and with a single short closed tear and a minor accompanying crease. £50

KINGSLEY AMIS. Bright November. Poems. The Fortune Press, London [1964]. The second, unauthorised edition of the author’s uncommon first book. Slim 8vo. 32pp. A tiny hint of wear to the head of the spine, and  the upper board lifting just a fraction. One corner of front free endpaper clipped, presumably to remove a former owner name. A lovely crisp copy, internally flawless bar the aforementioned clipping. Housed in thin paper dust wrapper with the 12’6 price sticker to front flap. Wrapper tanned at the spine panel, a little chaffed at the rear flap joint, with some light sunning to some extremities and two small areas of loss from spine panel. Thirty-one poems. £150

“The renown of the author prompted Caton to produce this second edition, but his omission to inform [Amis] of the existence or to benefit him from its sales must be construed as being rather more than forgetful-ness” – Timothy d’Arch Smith, R.A. Caton and the Fortune Press.

KINGSLEY AMIS. The Evans Country. Poems. Fantasy Press, Oxford 1962. First edition. Stapled card wrappers. Wrappers lightly sunned and with a tiny smattering of foxing. Neat former owner name inked to title page. A good bright copy. Six poems, all of which appeared previously in The Spectator but are collected here for the first time. £35

SIMON ARMITAGE. Zoom! Poems. Bloodaxe Books, Newcastle upon Tyne 1989. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page with his customary anaemic flourish. Slim 8vo. 80pp. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). A shade of discolouration to the upper edge of the wrappers and a brief contemporary former owner gift inscription inked to the corner of the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy. Sixty-one poems, the future Poet Laureate’s first collection. £95

SIMON ARMITAGE. Killing Time. A poem. Faber, London 1999. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page and dated the year after publication. Slim 8vo. 52pp. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). A fine unopened copy of this lengthy 1,000-line poem. £25

JOHN ASHBURY. Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. Poems. The Viking Press, New York 1975. First edition. 8vo. 83pp. Quarter cloth with paper-covered sides. Just a shade of very light discolouration to the head of the upper and lower boards. A virtually fine copy in price-clipped dust wrapper with the correct 0575 (i.e. May 1975) printing code to the base of the flap.  The wrapper exhibits just a hint of creasing to the head of the spine panel and two lengthy vertical creases to the front flap, accompanied by a small partially removed sticker. Thirty-five poems, winner of the 1976 Pulitzer Prize. £150

GEORGE BARKER. In Memory of David Archer. Faber, London 1973. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the front endpaper. Slim 8vo. 77pp. In fine state with very good dust wrapper, very lightly dust marked and with a little chafing to spine ends. Fifty-six poems, many of which are inspired by the memory of David Archer, whose Parton Street bookshop was a gathering point for young British modernists in the 1930’s including Barker, David Gascoyne and Dylan Thomas. £50

GEORGE BARKER. Dialogues etc. Faber, London 1976. The publisher’s proof sheets, five separate gatherings which together comprise the entire book, bar of course the wrappers. In fine state. Housed in an envelope bearing the following handwritten text: “George Barker. ‘Dialogues etc.’ To be published 1976. ‘Proof’ pages ‘hot off the press’ November 12^th 1975”. An uncommon find. £35

SEBASTIAN BARRY. The Water Colourist. Poems. The Dolmen Press, Portlaoise 1983. First edition – a paperback original. Slim 8vo. 56pp. Plain card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper. A touch of light soiling to the wrappers and wear to several extremities, and a small area of surface abrasion to the rear wrapper where a small price sticker has been removed. Faint ghost of partially erased pencil marking to the tip of the first leaf. A very good copy. Thirty-two poems; the author’s second book and first collection of verse. £55

JOHN BETJEMAN contributes his poem The Song of a Cold World to the anthology Public School Verse. An Anthology 1924-1925 – Betjeman’s first appearance in book-form. Heinemann, London 1925. First edition. 40pp. Paper-covered boards with paper spine label. Boards lightly tanned, a little marked at rear and with a little tight wear to head and foot of spine. Spine label rubbed and partially illegible. With a light smattering of foxing throughout and a single tiny ink mark to title page. A good copy, no dust wrapper. A presentation copy from E.O.Pearson (who contributes four poems). There is a neat name and date of the recipient (E.G.Pearson Sept 9. 1925) to the front endpaper, along with an additional amusing poem by Pearson which has been pasted in ("I'm sending you a triolet because the book was not in store: To show you that I don't forget I'm sending you a triolet. It's on the way, but not here yet [They say it takes three days or more]. I'm sending you a triolet because the book was not in store"). £100

JOHN BETJEMAN. St. Mary-Le-Strand. A broadsheet poem. Privately printed from Betjeman’s Radnor Walk address [1981]. A single A4 sheet containing Betjeman’s twenty-line poem, with a small unaccredited drawing of the church and with the author’s facsimile signature at the base. The merest hint of edge creasing, else in fine state. An uncommon late J.B. broadsheet poem, produced in an unspecified limited edition to raise funds for the restoration of the church. All copies have this identical facsimile of the author’s late-life signature. £75

JOHN BETJEMAN. A Garland for the Laureate. Poems presented to Sir John Betjeman on his 75^th birthday. The Calendine Press, Stratford-upon-Avon 1981. First edition – one of seventy-five numbered copies, out of a total edition of 350 (there were a further seventy-five casebound copies signed by the contributors). Unpaginated. 4to. Buckram-backed marbled boards. Edges untrimmed. With a handsome title page decoration by Miriam Macgregor. A sliver of discolouration and a small area of quite discreet staining to base of upper board, else a fine copy of a very handsome production, but lacking the slipcase. Former owner name inked to a blank preliminary. Twenty-two poems, all bar two previously unprinted, including contributions from Kingsley Amis, Leonard Clark, Charles Causley, Roy Fuller, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Norman Nicholson, Alan Ross, Sacheverell Sitwell, Stephen Spender, R.S.Thomas, Anthony Thwaite, John Wain, Laurence Whistler and others. £200

“The project was kept a secret from J.B. and the book was presented to him by Roger Pringle as a surprise one morning, with many of the poets involved also present, having arrived at his Radnor Walk house in a fleet of taxis, accompanied by bottles of champagne and smoked salmon sandwiches” – from a letter from the publisher to Candida Lycett Green. 

THOMAS BLACKBURN. The Fourth Man. Poems. MacGibbon & Kee, London 1971. First edition – this copy fondly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper. Slim 8vo. 55pp. Top edge lightly spotted and with just a trace of light partial browning to the free endpapers. A very good copy in chafed and a little nicked and tanned dust wrapper. Twenty-three poems. Laid-in is a sheet of paper, folded once, containing an original typewritten poem by Blackburn, with one error corrected, written for inclusion in the catalogue for the 1962 Arthur Boyd retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. £20

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD. Poems. With thirteen illustrations by T.S.Cooper, J.C.Horsley &c., engraved by Thurston Thompson. Van Voorst, London 1845. The first edition of this selection. Newly and attractively rebound in cloth-backed marbled boards, with printed spine-label (and a spare at rear). Very good. £40

WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT (under the pseudonym ‘Proteus’). Sonnets and Songs. John Murray, London 1875. First edition (never reprinted). Small 8vo. 112pp. Yellow pebbled cloth, a little marked, handled and soiled, lettered and ruled in gold at upper board and with a small gilt vignette of the sun. Blind rule to rear board. Some spotting to endpapers and, lightly, to occasional text leaves. Binding just a little tender in places. A nice bright copy. With the bookplates of noted bibliophile and bibliographic scholar Simon Novel-Smith and his Judith Adams. Fifty-one poems. Extremely uncommon. £200

WILLIAM BRONK. Careless Love and Its Apostrophes. Poems. Red Ozier Press, New York 1985. First edition, limited to 175 numbered copies, this being one of just forty casebound copies (#22), signed by the author in pencil at the foot of the colophon. 8vo. Unpaginated. Printed on Johannot mouldmade paper with hand-lettering by Anita Karl and bound into decorated paper-covered cloth designed by Claire Maziarczyk and with a paper spine label. A fine copy of a most handsome production, housed in the original unprinted acetate protector. Thirty-one poems. Uncommon. £150

WILLIAM BRONK. Living Instead. Poems. North Point Press, San Francisco 1991. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page and with an additional presentation inscription to Christopher Whelen. Slim 8vo. 98pp. A fine copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly chafed at the head of the spine panel. Laid-in is a copy of the University at Buffalo Christmas Broadside for December 1984 (second series, no. 6), featuring a poem by Bronk accompanied by a Eugene Canadé illustration. £50

RUPERT BROOKE. Poems. Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd., London 1911. First edition of the author’s first commercially produced book, of which 500 copies were printed. 8vo. viii, 88pp. Dark blue cloth with a somewhat tanned and lightly chipped paper spine label. A touch of wear to the cloth at the backstrip ends. The front hinge a fraction tender, with a little further tenderness to several gatherings. Free endpapers very lightly spotted and browned. Some toning to the final text leaf, and just a little further partial toning to pp.46-47 where it would seem a slip of paper was once stored. A portrait of Brooke has been tipped to the title verso, resulting in a little offset browning to the half-title and to the front endpaper and pastedown. A tiny sliver of moisture marking to the base of each leaf. Contemporary ownership inscription neatly inked to the base of the front free endpaper. Despite the aforementioned faults, this remains a surprisingly crisp and bright copy. No dust wrapper called-for. Thirty poems composed between 1908-1911, followed by three Experiments, and seventeen juvenile efforts penned between 1905-1908. Keynes 5. £500

GEORGE MACKAY BROWN. Loaves and Fishes. Poems. The Hogarth Press, London 1959. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page and dated the year after publication. Slim 8vo. 46pp. The head of the backstrip bumped and the free endpapers partially browned. Very good in lightly tanned dust wrapper. Twenty-five poems, the author’s first regularly published collection, preceded only by The Storm, published by the Orkney Press in 1954 and limited to just 300 copies. Uncommon, and much more so with his contemporary signature. £500

AUSTIN CLARKE. The Sword of the West. Poems. Mansel & Roberts 1921. The first edition of his third book. Cloth-backed boards, a little stained, faded and rubbed. Spine-label chipped. Fly- leaves quite browned. Clipping pasted to half-title. £75

WENDY COPE. Across the City. Poems. Priapus Press, ‘Priapus Poets’ series, Berkhamsted 1980. First edition, limited to 180 hand-set copies (this being one of 150 un-signed and un-numbered examples). Small slim 8vo. Unpaginated [12pp] sewn into pink card wrappers illustrated with a Rigby Graham series design. In fine state. Five poems - the author’s uncommon first book, preceding her first regularly published collection Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis by six years. £50

WENDY COPE. If I Don’t Know. Poems. Faber, London 2001. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 76pp. A fine copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel. Forty poems plus the lengthy 22-page poem The Teacher’s Tale. The author’s fourth full-length collection of adult verse. £20

A.E.COPPARD. Hips & Haws. Poems. Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham St. Lawrence 1922. First edition, limited to 500 numbered copies (this copy un-numbered and marked ‘Not for Sale’). A presentation copy, inscribed by the author to fellow writer Frederic Prokosch, under which Coppard has inked the final two lines of Masefield’s poem Flesh, I Have Knocked at Many a Dusty Door. With Prokosch’s bookplate to the front pastedown. Slim 8vo. 44pp. Buckram-backed paper-covered boards with a paper spine label. Boards a little rubbed and dust soiled, and with just a little toning and spotting to the endpapers and to two or three preliminary leaves. A nice bright copy of the author’s first collection of verse, and the seventh Golden Cockerel Press publication. No dust wrapper. £75

HERBERT CORBY. Hampdens Going Over. Editions Poetry London 1945. First edition - this copy inscribed by the author: "To Olive, with best wishes. May 1946". 77pp. Patterned boards, slightly chafed at extremities. A very nice copy in chipped and repaired dust wrapper. Corby's first book. £45

HERBERT CORBY. Time in a Blue Prison. Fortune Press, London [1947]. First edition – a presentation copy from the author: "To my good friend and fellow poet, Arnold Vincent Bowen, with best wishes Herbert Corby, June 1947". Slim 8vo. 64pp. Boards a little rubbed at some extremities.  A hint of sporadic spotting, else a very bright copy in quite striking price-clipped dust wrapper, a little marked and tanned. Seventy-three World War Two poems. £50

KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND. East Anglian Poems. With illustrations by James Dodds. Jardine Press, Suffolk 1988. First edition - limited to just 100 numbered copies on handmade paper, signed by both poet and artist, this being the very first number. Slim 4to. Full leather. With title-page and colophon decorations and twelve superb woodcuts, one colour-tinted, plus another on the rear endpapers. A hint of occasional chafing to leather else in fine state with original rexine slipcase. Small former owner name label to front pastedown. Sixteen poems, the fifth book published by Dodds' Jardine Press. Really quite scarce. £125

KEVIN CROSSLEY-HOLLAND. The Language of Yes. Poems. Enitharmon Press, London 1996. First edition, the deluxe casebound issue, limited to just thirty numbered copies (this being #4), signed by the author and including a hand-written poem. Slim 8vo.  72pp. White cloth lettered in black at spine and with a decorated paper plate inset to the upper board. Four or five very light instances of spotting to the cloth and just a speckling of spotting to the top edge. A virtually fine copy. No dust wrapper called for. Forty-one poems. £75

ELIZABETH DARYUSH. Verses: Seventh Book. With a preface by Roy Fuller. Carcanet Press Ltd., Oxford 1971. First edition, limited to 400 copies, this being one of forty numbered copies, signed by the author and by Roy Fuller. Slim 8vo. 47pp. Plain card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper. A tiny trace of wear to the yapped wrapper margins, and just a touch of spotting to the top edge. A virtually fine copy. A three-page preface by Roy Fuller precedes forty-eight poems. The author’s final book, bar selected and collection editions. £75

C.DAY-LEWIS (writing as Cecil Day-Lewis) contributes his poems Dream Maker, Sanctuary, Once in Arcady and A Forest Piece to the anthology Ten Singers. Fortune & Merriman, London 1925. First edition. Demy 8vo. 24pp. Hand-set, printed on handmade paper and bound into card wrappers. Wrappers a little dusty, nicked and chipped at yapped edges and with several small areas of staining, but a lovely crisp copy internally. A small label noting the printing and pricing details (perhaps once part of a wraparound band) has been pasted to the inner wrapper, resulting in a small rectangle of offsetting to the adjacent free endpaper. Embossed ‘Presentation Copy’ stamp. A very good copy, some leaves uncut. Although dated 1925 this anthology was in fact issued in October 1924 thereby constituting Day Lewis’ first bookform appearance. Handley-Taylor & D’Arch Smith B1. £40

C.DAY-LEWIS. Beechen Vigil and Other Poems. The Fortune Press, London  [1925]. First Edition of the author’s first book. 8vo. 31pp. Card wrappers with paper title label. Wrappers a little chipped and tanned, with yapped edges nicked. A light scattering of spotting to endpapers. Internally in extremely crisp state. Twenty-four poems printed on handmade paper, Day-Lewis’ first published collection (although he had contributed earlier in the year to Ten Singers, also published by The Fortune Press, under its first name of Fortune & Merriman). £150

C.DAY-LEWIS. Selected Poems. Harper & Row, New York 1967. First American edition (there was no equivalent UK edition). This copy inscribed by the author: “J.R. / With all good wishes / Cecil”. The recipient of the inscription was Bishop John Robinson, author and scholar, noted amongst other things for his testimony at the Lady Chatterley’s Lover censorship trail (a book which “every Christian should read”). 8vo. 160pp. Decorated paper-covered boards. Top-edge, endpapers and half-title light spotted. A lovely crisp copy in dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at head of spine panel and with a single short closed tear. A foreword by the author (“Casting back over my verse of the last forty years is an uncomfortable experience”) precedes sixty-one poems. A ticket for Day-Lewis’ 1972 St-Martin-in-the-Fields Memorial Service laid-in. £50

WALTER DE LA MARE. The Veil and Other Poems. Holt, New York 1922. First American edition. 8vo. 84pp. Attractive ornate gilt-pictorial cloth. A very bright copy. Handsome former owner bookplate to front pastedown. Fifty-three poems. £20

JAMES DICKEY. Poets of Today VII.  With a twenty-page introductory essay, Some Thoughts on Poetry, by John Hall Wheelock. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York 1960. First edition. 8vo. 206pp. A virtually fine copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly chafed at the spine ends and corner tips, and with a little fading to the publisher’s red spine panel colouring. This three-hander constitutes James Dickey’s first book, and includes the entirety of his debut collection Into the Stone and Other Poems. Paris Leary contributes his thirty-eight verse collection Views of the Oxford Colleges and Other Poems, and Jon Swan contributes his thirty-one verse collection Journeys and Return. £55

KEITH DOUGLAS. The Complete Poems of Keith Douglas. Edited by Desmond Graham. Oxford University Press, London 1978. The first edition of this definitive collection of Dpuglas' verse, drawing on newly available manuscript material. 8vo. 145pp. A tiny bump to the tip of one corner and the tiniest trace of spotting to the top edge. Contemporary former owner name and date neatly inked to the front free endpaper. Very good indeed in fractionally rubbed and marked dust wrapper. Over one hundred poems – all that are known to survive (bar a few juvenile pieces), and including three hitherto unpublished or uncollected. £35

CAROL ANN DUFFY. Selling Manhattan. Poems. Anvil Press Poetry, London 1987. First edition of the author’s second regularly published collection. This copy signed by the author on the title page. Slim 8vo. 61pp. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). A short crease to the tip of the contents leaf, else in fine state. Forty-four poems. £75

CAROL ANN DUFFY. Mean Time. Poems. Anvil Press Poetry, London 1993. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author on the half-title and dated the year of publication. Slim 8vo. 52pp + [ii] publisher’s advertisements. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). The wrappers very lightly soiled and with a little light creasing to one corner. A very good copy. Thirty-nine poems, the author’s fourth full-length collection. £40

DOUGLAS DUNN. The Happier Life. Poems. Faber, London 1972. First edition of the author’s second collection. 8vo. A tiny trace of spotting to top edge, else in fine state with dust wrapper, fractionally tanned at spine panel. Thirty-nine poems. £15

PAUL DURCAN. A Snail in My Prime. New and Selected Poems. Harvill, London and The Blackstaff Press, Belfast 1993. First edition – the uncommon casebound issue. 8vo.xiii, 268pp. A touch of bruising to the head of the backstrip and a single tiny inkblot to the tip of the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in very slightly dust marked dust wrapper. One-hundred and nineteen poems, thirteen of them here making their first bookform appearance, with the remainder selected from the Irish poets previous collections: Endsville (1967), O Westport in the Light of Asia Minor (1975), Teresa's Bar (1976), Sam's Cross (1978), Jesus, Break his Fall (1980), Jumping the Train Tracks with Angela (1983), The Berlin Wall Café (1985), Going Home to Russia (1987), Daddy, Daddy (1990) and Crazy About Women (1991). £20

RICHARD EBERHART. A Bravery of Earth. A poem. Jonathan Cape, London 1930. First edition of the author’s first book, this UK edition preceding the US issue. 8vo. 128pp. Tipped-in errata slip, as called-for. Some very light partial browning to the free endpapers. A virtually fine copy in remarkably well preserved dust wrapper, very lightly rubbed at the head of the spine panel and with two miniscule nicks. A super copy of the author’s first  publication, a book-length poem reflecting his experiences in Cambridge and as a ship's hand. £100

WILLIAM EMPSON. Poems. Chatto & Windus, London 1935. First edition of the author’s first collection of verse. Slim 8vo. viii, 48pp. Quarter cloth. Corner tips bumped and with a little toning to the half title and to the final text leaf. A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, with a handsome unaccredited two-colour design, lightly tanned with several tiny fractions of loss from the spine panel ends and an inch-long slit to one natural fold. Thirty poems followed by ten pages of notes. £95

JAMES FENTON. The Memory of War. Poems 1968-1982. The Salamander Press, Edinburgh 1982. First edition, first state – one of 600 misprinted copies with twelve lines missing from the poem Dead Soldiers, and with a specially printed corrected version laid-in. Tall 8vo. 93pp + [i] notes. In fine state with fine dust wrapper. The author’s second collection of verse: the first edition was limited to 3,000 copies, but the first 600, issued between June and September 1982, contained this not insignificant printing error, compelling the publisher to produce a quite elegant four-page correction leaflet to insert with each of these copies. Uncommon. £55

ROY FULLER. Poems. The Fortune Press, London [1940]. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author at the head of the front free endpaper and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 39pp. Boards lightly marked in places where adhesive from the dust wrapper protector has become adhered. A light scattering of fox spotting to endpapers and half-title. Several leaves uncut. A very good copy in dust wrapper, a little tanned at spine panel with several tiny slivers of loss to spine ends and corner tips. Twenty-nine poems, the author’s first book. £125

DAVID GASCOYNE. A Vagrant and Other Poems. With a dust wrapper design by Keith Vaughan. John Lehmann Ltd., London 1950. First edition. A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author to his friend the eccentric poet Audrey Beecham. Slim 8vo. 62pp. Errata slip tipped between pp.12-13, as issued. Several small squares of tape residue marking to the free endpapers, off-set to the adjacent leaf. A very good copy in dust wrapper designed by Keith Vaughan, with just a trace of dust soiling to the rear panel and a tiny hint of wear to the spine ends and to several corner tips. Thirty poems. £95

JOHN GAWSWORTH. Blow No Bugles. Poems from Two Wars 1942-1945. Susil Gupta, Calcutta 1945. First edition. 8vo. 64pp. Paper-covered boards with red lettered paper spine and title labels, the former chipped with a small area of loss. With a frontispiece drawing, and the title page printed in black and red. Board extremities lightly rubbed and with a narrow strip of discolouration to the upper and fore edge margin of the front board. Free endpapers lightly spotted. Former owner pencilled signature. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. A brief preface by the author precedes fifty poems by the Cairo and Salamander Group poet, the bulk written “at various advanced sectors of the Mediterranean Front whilst the author was serving in the Air Force supporting the First, and Eighth Armies”, plus thirteen penned during his year in India. £50

KENNETH GEE. 32 Poems. The Fortune Press, London [1942]. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “To Hubert + Marjorie from Kenneth, in friendship 22/3/42” (the recipient being fellow poet H.B.Mallalieu and his wife. Mallalieu is the dedicatee of Gee’s two-part poem Poem for England, included here, and both he and Gee made occasional contributions to Howard Sergeant’s long-running poetry magazine Outposts). Small slim 8vo. 47pp. The merest hint of spotting to the top edge and the buckram lifting from the boards a little in a few places. Binding tender at one gathering. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly toned at the spine panel. Thirty-two poems; the author’s first and seemingly only book (he later contributed two further poems to the 1944 Fortune Press anthology Sailing To-Morrow’s Seas and to occasional periodicals). Uncommon. £35

W.S.GRAHAM. The White Threshold. Poems. Faber, London 1949. First edition of the author’s uncommon fourth collection of verse. Slim 8vo. 70pp. Top edge very lightly dust marked and with a small area of spotting to the front pastedown and endpaper. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, a little darkened to several edges and with a touch of spotting to the rear panel and a centimetre or so of loss to the head of the spine panel and one or two other tiny fractions of loss to extremities. Publisher’s compliments slip laid-in stating “With Compliments of the author” (the first two words printed, the final three typed). Thirty-one poems. 1,200 copies were printed. £200

W.S.GRAHAM. The Nightfishing. Poems. Faber, London 1955. First edition. 8vo. 76pp. A tiny trace of spotting to the top edge, and with some of the usual partial browning to the free endpapers. Contemporary former owner name and date inked to the front pastedown. A very good copy in dust wrapper with several miniscule fractions of loss to the spine panel ends and a small area of surface abrasion to the base of the rear panel. Ten poems including the magnificent lengthy title verse. £200

ROBERT GRAVES. Country Sentiment. Poems. Martin Secker, London 1920. First Edition. ‘Cobble-stone’ decorated paper-covered boards with paper spine label. A strip of light partial browned in endpapers and some spotting throughout. Tiny dealer plate to front pastedown. A nice bright copy in the uncommon dust wrapper,  slightly dust marked and tanned and chipped at spine panel. Graves’ fifth book, forty-six poems, dedicated to his wife Nancy Nicholson. 1,000 copies were printed. £125

PHILIP GROSS. The Ice Factory. Poems. Faber, London 1984. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 62pp. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). In fine state. Forty poems, the author’s first collection of verse (Gross’ 2009 collection The Water Table would go on to win the T.S.Eliot prize). £25

THOM GUNN. [Poems]. The Fantasy Poets Number Sixteen. Oxford University Poetry Society 1953. First edition of the author’s first book, consisting of the following poems: Incident on a Journey, Wind in the Street, The Wound, The Beach Head, The Right Possessor and A Village Edmund. Stapled wrappers, a little marked with a small tear to the base of the natural fold. Staples rusted. Quite a nice, bright copy. Edited by Donald Hall and Oscar Mellor, this is the sixteenth issue of this influential series "designed to feature the work of young poets in England today". In total thirty-five issues were eventually published between 1952-1962. £95

THOM GUNN. Fighting Terms. Poems. Fantasy Press, Oxford 1954. First edition, second issue (incorporating a single minor textual correction to the poem Tamer and Hawk – a ‘t’ added to the end of ‘thought’ in the first line). Slim 8vo. 44pp. Yellow cloth lettered and ruled in red at the upper board. Cloth a little marked and handled. Endpapers really quite browned, yet otherwise extremely fresh internally. Twenty-five poems, the author's first substantial book (and the first hardcover publication issued by the Fantasy Press). The first and second states comprised only 305 copies in total and can be differentiated only by the textual correction (the publisher Oscar Mellor believed the two states could be identified by the slightly different shade of yellow cloth they were bound in, but Gunn's bibliographer Jack Hagstrom has suggested that this is probably not the case). No dust wrapper, as issued. £175

THOM GUNN. The Sense of Movement. Poems. Faber, London 1957. First edition. Slim 8vo. 62pp. Some spotting and browning to endpapers. A very crisp copy of the author’s second collection of verse, of which 1,000 copies were printed. Housed in tanned and spotted dust wrapper with several small areas of loss from spine ends and tips of several corners. Thirty-two poems. £50

TONY HARRISON. The Loiners. Poems. London Magazine Editions, London 1970. First edition of the author’s first regularly published book (preceded only by the pamphlets Earthworks and Newcastle is Peru, the latter reproduced here). This copy signed by the author on the title page and dated three years after publication, and additionally inscribed (to fellow poet Jeremy Hooker and his wife). 8vo. 96pp. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at several extremities. Twenty-two poems. £125

DAVID HARSENT. Marriage. Poems. Faber, London 2002. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page, and additionally inscribed with a brief handwritten card laid-in. Slim 8vo. 69pp. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). In virtually fine state. Two lengthy sequences of poems. £20

SEAMUS HEANEY. A Lough Neagh Sequence. Phoenix Pamphlet Poets Press, Manchester 1969. First edition, of which 1,000 copies were printed (this being one of 950 copies in wrappers). Slim 8vo. 11pp stapled into very slightly marked glossy card wrappers. The staples fractionally rusted. A very good copy of this early Heaney collection, only this third book. The seven-poem sequence was subsequently revised for inclusion in his second major collection, Door in the Dark, published five months later (although the sequence had first appeared in the winter 1967 issue of The University Review). Brandes and Durkan A4b. £275

SEAMUS HEANEY. Seeing Things. Poems. Faber, London 1991. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 250 specially bound numbered copies, signed by the author (this being #223). 8vo. 113pp. Quarter black cloth with rust-coloured paper-covered sides with a small printed spine label. The lettering on the spine label is faded to near-illegibility, and a former owner has inked new author and title details over the original printed lettering. A tiny area of chafing to the tip of the front free endpaper, presumably from where a former price has been erased. Very good indeed. No dust wrapper called for, but housed in the unprinted stiff card slipcase, which is lightly faded at several margins. Thirty-seven poems. The author’s eighth primary collection of verse. Uncommon in this deluxe issue. Brandes & Durkan A50c. £300

SEAMUS HEANEY. Human Chain. Poems. Faber, London 2010. First edition. Slim 8vo. 85pp. In fine state with virtually fine dust wrapper, very lightly faded at the spine panel. Thirty-five poems. The author’s twelfth and final full-length collection of verse. £20

JOHN HEATH-STUBBS. Collected Poems 1943-1987. Carcanet Press Ltd., Manchester 1988. First edition. 8vo. 628pp. The backstrip ends bruised, else a virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly toned at the spine panel and with a little corresponding edge-creating. A five-page preface by the author precedes a gargantuan collection of over five hundred poems. £25

F.R.HIGGINS. Island Blood. Poems. With a foreword by A.E. John Lane, The Bodley Head Ltd., London 1925. First edition. 8vo. xii, 74pp + [viii] publisher’s advertisements. Original publisher’s buckram. Some browning to the endpapers and a little light spotting to four or five preliminary leaves. Very good indeed in the uncommon dust wrapper, a little dusty, quite tanned at the spine panel and with two or three tiny fractions of edge loss. A tiny dealer plate to the base of the rear pastedown. A two-page foreword by A.E. precedes forty-seven poems. The second collection of verse by the noted Irish poet and theatre director. £95

GEOFFREY HILL. King Log. Poems. Andre Deutsch, London 1968. First edition of the author’s second major collection. 8vo. 70pp. Contemporary (1970) former owner name and date neatly inked to the front free endpaper, and a tiny dealer plate to the front pastedown (obscured by the wrapper flap). A strip of browning to the title page, presumably offset from a slip of paper one being stored there. Very good indeed in non-price-clipped dust wrapper, a little faded at the spine panel and with a touch of further fading to the margins of the front and rear panels, several tiny slivers of loss from the spine ends, and a single tiny area of enclosed wear. Eighteen poems plus a short essay. Increasingly uncommon. £125

GEOFFREY HILL. Somewhere is Such a Kingdom. Poems 1952-1971. With an introduction by Harold Bloom. Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston 1975. First edition. A presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “To Matt and Win, to recall my ‘swansong’ in New Delhi, February 22.5 1976; and in gratitude for so much kind hospitality, February-March 1976. Geoffrey Hill”. 8vo. xxv, 130pp. A hint of very light bruising to the backstrip ends. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, very lightly faded at the spine panel and with a touch of rubbing and chafing to the spine panel ends and to the tip of a single corner. A thirteen-page introduction precedes seventy-six poems and two short essays selected from the author’s first three regularly published collections. There was no equivalent English edition. £250

GEOFFREY HILL. Tenebrae. Poems. Andre Deutsch, London 1978. First edition. Slim 8vo. 48pp. A tiny scattering of spotting to the top edge, else a fine copy in very good dust wrapper, marred only by a little discolouration to the margins of the rear panel.  Ten poems, the author’s fifth major collection. £20

RALPH HODGSON. The Last Blackbird and Other Lines. George Allen, London 1907. First edition, first issue. Slim 8vo. 95pp. Russet cloth lettered in gold at spine and upper board. Top edge gilt (as required for this first issue), others rough-trimmed. A little light wear to spine ends and corner tips, and just a touch of browning to endpapers. Very good. Contemporary former owner gift inscription inked to the head of the front free endpaper. Twenty-six poems, the author’s uncommon first collection of verse. £50

RALPH HODGSON. The Skylark and Other Poems. Macmillan, London 1959. The first trade edition, following a limited edition of 350 copies printed at the Curwen Press and published a year earlier. 8vo. 85pp. Contemporary former owner name and date inked to the front free endpaper, else a fine copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at the head of the spine panel. Thirty-two poems: the author’s complete verse output since the publication of his collection Poems 1917, plus an index of first lines. £10

MICHAEL HOFMANN. Acrimony. Poems. Faber, London 1986. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 79pp. Some tanning to lesser-quality paperstock, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Forty-four poems, the author’s second collection of verse, for which he was awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. £35

TED HUGHES. The Martyrdom of Bishop Farrar. Richard Gilbertson, ‘The Manuscript Series, Crediton 1970. The second separate edition, corrected. Limited to 100 numbered copies, signed and dated by the author (this being #42). Royal 8vo. [8pp] stapled into card wrappers featuring a reproduction of a sixteenth-century woodcut taken from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, repeated on the first leaf. The wrappers lightly tanned and with a touch of light edge-creasing, and some surface abrasion to the verso of the first leaf where is appears a bookplate has been carefully removed. These are either new staples, or they were at some point repositioned. A nice, crisp copy of this uncommon item, somewhat more so that the uncorrected first issue (the poem was included in Hughes’ debut collection The Hawk in the Rain. The original printing of this first separate edition contained an error, two transposed lines, and so was succeeded by this corrected version, produced in a slightly different binding). Sagar & Tabor A21.a2. £225

TED HUGHES. Moortown. Poems. With two drawings by Leonard Baskin and a half-title decoration by the author. Faber, London 1979. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “For Peggy and Sean, yet another book, with much love from Ted, 10th Nov 1979”. (The recipients of Hughes’ inscription are the poet Seán Rafferty and his wife). 8vo. 170pp. Some tanning to the lesser quality paperstock, else a virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel and with a touch of marking and edge-creasing. One hundred and twenty-four poems. The collection is named after Hughes’ small farm in Winkleigh, Devon. Sagar & Tabor A67. £350

Scottish poet Seán Rafferty was born in February 1909 and studied at Edinburgh University where his verse greatly impressed Sorley MacLean. After the death of his first wife on V.E. day in 1945 he remarried and moved with his new wife Peggy to Devon where the couple ran the Duke of York pub in Iddesleigh and became great friends with their neighbour and regular Ted Hughes, who regularly sent Rafferty’s poems to PN Review.  His Collected Poems was posthumously issued by Carcanet in 1995.

TED HUGHES. Moortown. Poems. With drawings by Leonard Baskin. Harper & Row, New York 1980. The first American edition, issued seven months after the UK edition. 8vo. xi, 182pp. Quarter-cloth with a small blind-stamped Hughes' drawing on the upper board. A tiny crease to the head of the backstrip and a near invisible scattering of spotting to the fore edge. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, marred only by a touch of corresponding creasing to the spine panel ends. One hundred and twenty-four poems, accompanied by two Baskin drawings, both of which are repeated on the dust wrapper. Includes one poem (Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days) which was omitted from the UK edition, and excludes another (The Lovepet). Sagar & Tabor A67b. £35

TED HUGHES. Collected Poems. Edited by Paul Keegan. Faber, London 2003. First edition. 8vo. xli, 1333pp. A trace of bruising to the backstrip ends, and an inked gift inscription to the front free endpaper. A very good copy in lightly dust soiled dust wrapper. A seven-page preface by the editor precedes this definitive collection of Hughes’ verse, including over two hundred poems hitherto unprinted in bookform. £30

THOMAS KINSELLA. Her Vertical Smile. Poems. Peppercanister, Dublin 1985. First edition, limited to 350 copies (out of a total edition of 425), this one signed by the author on the title page. 25pp. Card wrappers with French flaps. A virtually fine copy. A two-part verse sequence, issued as Peppercanister #10 (published simultaneously with Kinsella’s Songs of the Psyche which appeared as Peppercanister #9). £50

PHILIP LARKIN. The North Ship. Poems. The Fortune Press, London 1945. First edition of the author’s first book, this being in un-noted binding variant in grey cloth, lettered in gold at spine. Printed on Glastonbury watermarked paper by S.C.Jennings & Sons Ltd. Slim 8vo. 36pp. A touch of wear to two or three extremities. Some production fault creasing to two text leaves. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. Bloomfield (2002) notes: “White laid paper watermarked: ‘I Batchelor & Sons Ltd | HAND MADE’. Copies are also found with paper watermarked: ‘[crown] | Glastonbury’ and with mixtures of both. This is due to the owner of The Fortune Press habitually buying end runs of paper stock for his printers”.  Printed in an edition likely not exceeding 500 copies. Thirty-one poems. Bloomfield (2002) A1. £500

PHILIP LARKIN. [Poems]. Oxford University Poetry Society, 'Fantasy Poets' series, Oxford 1954. First edition. Demi 8vo. Six pages of printed text comprising the poems: Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album, Whatever Happened?, If, My Darling, Arrivals, Departures and At Grass (all bar two of which are hitherto unprinted). Designed and printed by Oscar Mellor in an edition of circa 300 copies. Stapled wrappers, fractionally toned and marked in places, and the whole very lightly creased. A very good copy of the twenty-first number in Oscar Mellor’s influential series "designed to feature the work of young poets in England today". In total thirty-five issues were eventually published between 1952-1957. Bloomfield A5. £300

PHILIP LARKIN. The Less Deceived.  Poems. The Marvell Press, Hessle 1955. First Edition, first issue – with the flat spine. The misprint “floor” for “sea” in the first line of the poem Absences. Slim 8vo. 43pp + [ii] list of subscribers. Printed on Abbey Mills antique laid paper. Poet Dannie Abse’s copy, with his inked ownership signature to the front free endpaper. Damp marking to the corners of the boards. Free endpapers lightly browned. A good copy in dust wrapper, with the price 6/- nett printed to the base of the front panel, as required for this first state. The wrapper split into two parts and with about half of the spine panel now absent. A respectable copy of the author’s third major collection of verse. The first edition comprised a total of 700 copies, and just 300 of those were initially bound. This first issue sold out swiftly and the remaining 400 were then bound, these later examples produced with rounded spines and so easily identifiable as the second issue. Both the first and second issue are now most uncommon, but this first issue somewhat more so. Bloomfield A6. £500

PHILIP LARKIN. Collected Poems. Edited with an introduction by Anthony Thwaite. The Marvell Press and Faber, London 1988. First edition. 8vo. xxvii, 330pp. A thin crease to the backstrip and just a touch of spotting to the front free endpaper, and also to the top- and fore edge. A very good copy in fractionally rubbed and toned dust wrapper. The seminal Larkin collection, a nine-page introduction by Larkin scholar Thwaite precedes nearly two hundred and fifty poems. Bloomfield A19. £50

PHILIP LARKIN. Early Poems and Juvenilia. Edited and introduced by A.T.Tolley. Faber, London 2005. First edition. 8vo. 382pp. A tine crease to the lower tip of a single text leaf, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, marred only by a single miniscule closed tear to the upper edge. Over 250 poems, some of which appeared in Collected Poems (1988) and the Larkin Society publication About Larkin, but most of which are hitherto unprinted. £25

JOHN LEHMANN. The Reader at Night and Other Poems. Basilike, Toronto 1974. First edition, limited to 250 signed and numbered copies designed, handset and printed at the Dreadnaught Press. Small 4to. Unpaginated. Marbled paper-covered cloth with a paper spine label (and a spare tipped-in). Ghost of former owner pencil markings to front endpaper. An extremely clean and bright copy. Twelve poems. £35

MICHAEL LONGLEY. Lares. Poems. With illustrations by Brian Freeman. Poet and Printer, Woodford Green, Essex 1972.  First edition of his fourth collection of verse – this copy signed by the author on the title page. Small 8vo. 23pp. Sewn card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). The wrappers just a little tanned and dust marked, with a short jagged tear to the fore edge of the rear wrapper. A very good copy. Twelve poems, accompanied by four Freeman illustrations (one of which is reproduced on the front wrapper), stamped in black, blue, brown and yellow. £65

MICHAEL LONGLEY. The Echo Gate. Poems 1975-1979. Secker & Warburg, London 1979. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page and dated May 1999. Slim 8vo. 53pp. Top edge very lightly dust soiled, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, the upper edge lifting a fraction of the rear panel. Former owner name inked to the head of the front pastedown (and obscured by the wrapper flap). A printed dedication in verse to Michael Allen and Paul Muldoon precedes thirty-five poems. £55

ROBERT LOWELL. Poems 1938-1949. Faber, London 1950. First edition. 8vo. 102pp. Top edge lightly spotted and dust soiled and with a strip of light narrow browning to one blank preliminary and one blank concluding leaf. Very good indeed in very good dust wrapper, lightly tanned at the spine panel, a little chafed and rubbed at several extremities and with a former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front panel. Forty-eight poems, the author’s second regularly published book, and his first to be published in the UK, comprising a selection by Lowell from his first major collection Lord Weary’s Castle (1946), and elements of the earlier Land of  Unlikeness (1944). This selection was never issued in the US. £50

HUGH MACDIARMID [writing as 'Hugh McDairmid']. First Hymn to Lenin and Other Poems. With an introductory essay by A.E. (George William Russell). The Unicorn Press, London 1931. First edition, one of 450 numbered copies (from a total edition of 500), this being #68. Slim 8vo. 44pp. Quarter buckram. With marbled endpapers, a gilt top edge and a portrait frontispiece of the author by A.E. A shade of discolouration to the buckram and several tiny blemishes. A small area of spotting to the upper margin of six or seven adjacent leaves. A very good copy. No dust wrapper called-for, but lacking the plain card slipcase. A.E.'s six page introduction precedes a brief author's note and seventeen poems. £150

ROGER MCGOUGH. Watchwords. Poems. Jonathan Cape, London 1969. First edition – the most uncommon casebound issue. Slim 8vo. 56pp. Marbled paper-covered cloth. Just a trace of light spotting to edges, else a fine copy in tanned and occasionally marked pictorial dust wrapper. Thirty-two poems, McGough’s first solo collection, really quite scarce in this casebound state (a more common paperback version was issued simultaneously). £75

ROGER MCGOUGH. The Way Things Are. Poems. Viking, London 1999. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the front endpaper and dated the year of publication. Slim 8vo. 83pp. In fine state with fine dust wrapper.  Fifty-seven poems, all bar three appearing here in print for the first time. £25

ROGER MCGOUGH. Collected Poems. Viking, London 2003. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. xiii + 418pp. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. A near-definitive collection of the author’s adult verse, including seven hitherto unprinted poems “included at no extra cost to the reader”. £75

ROGER MCGOUGH. As Far As I Know. Poems. Viking, London 2012. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated the year of publication. Slim 8vo. viii, 85pp. A fine copy in fine faux-distressed dust wrapper. Fifty-three poems. £50

LOUIS MACNEICE. Blind Fireworks. Poems. Victor Gollancz Ltd., London 1929. First edition, first issue of the author’s most uncommon first book, of which 1,000 copies were printed. Small 8vo. 80pp. Cream linen cloth with a white paper spine label (a second issue was bound in black cloth with a blue spine label). Top edge dust soiled. Cloth a little marked and spotted, with a small area of staining to the upper edge of the rear board. Head of the backstrip just a little rubbed and the spine label a little tanned. Some browning to the free endpapers, but thereafter a very crisp and bright copy internally. No dust wrapper. Ownership signature of Betjeman scholar Peter Gammond inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A four-line foreword by the author precedes forty-four poems. Armitage & Clark A1 (who do not note the binding variants). £175

LOUIS MACNEICE. The Last Ditch. Poems. The Cuala Press, Dublin 1940. First edition, limited to 450 copies. Slim 8vo. 34pp. Linen-backed paper-covered boards, lettered in black at the upper board and with a slightly tanned and chipped paper spine label. All edges untrimmed. With a title page vignette and a loose tissue protector. Corner tips chafed and with just a hint of marking to the boards in one or two places. A very good copy, lacking the unprinted glassine protector. Nineteen poems plus five novelettes. Armitage & Clark A14. £200

LOUIS MACNEICE. The Revenant. A Song-Cycle for Hedli Anderson. The Cuala Press, Dublin 1975. First edition, limited to 350 numbered copies (this being #347). Slim 8vo. 30pp. Cloth-backed paper-covered boards with a paper spine label. The title page printed in red and black. All leaves uncut at the upper edge. A fine unread copy in the original unprinted tissue protector. The first complete printing of MacNeice’s song-cycle (the final poem appeared in Poems 1925-1948 and was also included in his 1966 Collected Poems; the remainder of the cycle with hitherto unprinted). £75

DEREK MAHON. A Kensington Notebook. Anvil Press Poetry Ltd., London 1984. First edition, limited to 500 numbered copies, this being one of 250 examples signed by the author. Slim 8vo. Unpaginated [8 pages of printed text]. Stapled wrappers. A fine copy in fine non-price-clipped dust wrapper. A six-page four-part poem. £95

ROLAND MATHIAS. Absalom in the Tree and other poems. Gomer Press, Llandysul 1971. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author: “For Jeremy [Hooker] / whose encouragement / and criticism I acknowledge / with deep gratitude / Roland / 14 August 1971”. Slim 8vo. 50pp.  A very good copy in dust wrapper, with a small area of rubbing to top edge and some light internal spotting. Twenty-three poems, winner of the Welsh Arts Council prize for poetry. £25

ROLAND MATHIAS. Snipe’s Castle. Poems. Gomer Press, Llandysul 1979. First edition – this copy with a lengthy presentation inscription from the author to Jeremy Hooker, dated the year of publication. Slim 8vo. 89pp. A trace of bruising to spine ends and marking to boards. Very good indeed in lightly tanned and faded dust wrapper. Thirty-one poems, winner of the Welsh Arts Council prize for poetry. £25

HAROLD MONRO. Poems. Elkin Mathews, ‘The Vigo Cabinet’ series, London 1906. First edition of the author’s first book. Royal 16mo. 64pp. Lettered card wrappers, with a touch of discolouration to the margins and a hint of creasing to the yapped fore edge. A very good copy. Fourteen poems from the founder of the Poetry Bookshop. £70

HAROLD MONRO. Real Property. Poems. The Poetry Bookshop, London 1922. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 100 number copies, signed by the author and specially printed by The Arden Press on linen rag paper [this being #76]. 8vo. 63pp. Vertically striped three-colour patterned paper boards [designed by Claud Lovat Fraser]. Bevelled edges. Corner tips and spine ends a little rubbed, chafed and chipped, and with just a touch of browning to the free endpapers. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. Twenty-one poems, many of them originally printed in various periodicals but the vast majority appearing here in bookform for the first time. Woolmer A29a. £75

MARIANNE MOORE. The Poems of Marianne Moore. Edited and with an introduction by Grace Schulman. Faber, London 2003. First edition. 8vo. xxx + 449pp. A tiny trace of bruising to the backstrip ends, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. Over 250 poems, the definitive collection of the author's verse which includes some hitherto unpublished, and reinstates circa one-hundred poems purposely omitted from the Complete Poems (1968). £30

WILLIAM MORRIS. The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems. Bell & Daldy, London 1858. First edition of the author’s first book, of which 500 copies were printed at the Chiswick Press. 8vo. viii, 248pp. Re-cased with a new backstrip and endpapers, but retaining the original textured cloth boards. With a title page decoration and different decorative headers introducing each poem. A little wear to the corner tips and one or two other extremities, and the cloth a little marked in places. A very good copy of Morris’ first book, and the first volume of Pre-Raphaelite poetry to be published (Morris largely self-funded the project, but it was not deemed a successful venture and he waited for nine years before publishing another work). Thirty poems, with a printed dedication to Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Most uncommon. £500

PAUL MULDOON. Moy Sand and Gravel. Poems. Faber, London 2002. First edition. Slim 8vo. 90pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Forty-five poems; winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the Griffin Poetry Prize. £15

PAUL MULDOON. Medley for Morin Khur. Poems. Enitharmon Press, London 2005. First edition, limited to 200 numbered and signed copies (175 of which were for sale). Tall 8vo. 25pp. Plain card wrappers with a handsome marbled paper dust wrapper (with exhibits a little internal off-setting from the marble design). In virtually fine state. The title poem followed by the thirteen-part sonnet sequence Horse Latitudes. £50

PAUL MULDOON. Plan B. Poems. With photographs by Norman McBeath. Enitharmon Press, London 2009. First edition. Slim 8vo. 63pp. Tip of one corner bumped, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Ten poems, accompanied by twenty-eight McBeath photographs. £15

CLERE PARSONS. Poems. Faber, London 1932. First edition of the author’s only book (he edited the 1928 issue of the Oxford Poetry, but died of pneumonia a year before this collection of his verse was published at the age of only twenty-three). 8vo. 31pp. Card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper. Wrappers detached and a touch of very light spotting to occasional leaves. A fairly poorly preserved copy of an uncommon item. Eighteen poems. £75

PETER PORTER. Once Bitten, Twice Bitten. Poems. Scorpion Press, Middlesex 1961. First edition of the author’s first book. Slim 8vo. 57pp. Top edge lightly spotted and with a tiny hint of additional spotting to several preliminary leaves and a few others. A very good, bright copy in laminated dust wrapper, lightly faded at spine panel and with some spotting to rear panel and front flap. Forty-four poems. Quite scarce. £40

EZRA POUND. Des Imagistes. An Anthology. [Edited by Ezra Pound]. The Poetry Bookshop and Albert & Charles Boni, New York 1914. The English issue of the first edition, from the American (book issue) sheets, with The Poetry Bookshop imprint stamped to the based of the half-title and the title page. 8vo. 63pp. Lettered paper covered boards. The free endpapers lightly tanned and spotted, the backstrip chipped and worn at the ends and gutters, and with a little tenderness to the binding at the title page. Residue from a small label to the base of the upper board. A good copy. Includes contributions by Richard Aldington (ten poems), H.D. (seven poems), F.S.Flint (five poems), Skipwith Cannell (one poem), Amy Lowell (one poem), William Carlos Williams (one poem), James Joyce (one poem), Ezra Pound (six poems), Ford Madox Hueffer (one poem), Allen Upward (one poem) and John Cournos (one poem), plus several documents and a one-page bibliography. The very first anthology of Imagist poets, originally issued in February 1914 as the fifth number of the short-lived literary magazine The Glebe (it was originally planned as the inaugural issue), and the published in bookform a month later, with present UK edition appearing one month after that. Both editions are uncommon, but this English issue seemingly more so. Gallup B7b. £250

PETER QUENNELL. Masques & Poems. The Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham Saint Lawrence 1922. First edition, limited to 550 numbered copies (375 for the UK and 175 for the US). This example un-numbered, marked ‘Not for sale’ and signed by the author on the colophon (the signature is not called for). Tall 8vo. 53pp. Paper-covered linen with a slightly toned paper spine label. A little discolouration to the board margins, some browning to the free endpapers, and some spotting to a few preliminary and concluding leaves. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. The author’s first book, comprising two short masques and seventeen poems, plus five decorations by the author. The ninth book published by The Golden Cockerel Press. Uncommon with Quennell’s signature. £75

DAVID RAIKES. The Poems of David Raikes. With a lengthy introduction by Charles Wrinch. Fantasy Press, Oxford 1954. First edition. 8vo. vii, 122pp. With a tipped-in photographic portrait frontispiece. A tiny bump to the tip of one corner, and a touch of very light toning to the free endpapers. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, with a little toning to the spine panel, a trace of light marking and wear, and the residue from a small sticker to the base of the rear panel. The author’s most uncommon posthumously published first book, containing fifty-three poems, all of them hitherto unprinted, preceded by a forty-three page introduction. Poems by a British airman, shot-down and killed over the Italian front in April 1945 (Raikes’ body and those of his three crewmates was finally discovered nearly seventy years after the loss of their bomber, and laid to rest at a Commonwealth war cemetery in the city of Padua in 2013). £95

JOHN CROWE RANSOM. Chills and Fever. Poems. Alfred A.Knopf, New York 1924. First edition, in the first state binding of rainbow-patterned boards with a tanned and slightly chipped paper spine label and the publisher’s yellow top edge stain. 8vo. 95pp. A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author to fellow poet and Newdigate Prize winner David Posner, dated May 1943 and with two inked lines of verse beneath and Posner’s signature in pencil above. Some occasional light pencilled marginalia and some notes to the front free endpaper, probably in Julian Symons' hand but possibly also in Posner’s. Laid-in is a folded two-sided handwritten letter from Ransom to Julian Symons concerning an article on Restoration comedy which was to appear in the Ransom-edited journal The Kenyon Review. Biro mark to the rear board and just a fraction of tenderness to the front hinge. A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, chipped with some notable edge-loss and with some internal taped repair. The author’s second regularly published book, containing forty-nine poems. £195

HERBERT READ. A World Within a War. Poems. Faber, London 1944. The first edition of this selection. Slim 8vo. 50pp. Cloth unevenly tanned and very slightly bumped at some extremities. Quite a bright copy in dusty, price-clipped dust wrapper. Seventeen poems, several of which appeared previously in Faber's Sesame series publication Thirty-Five Poems. £20

HERBERT READ. Moon's Farm and Poems Mostly Elegiac. Faber, London 1955. First edition. Slim 8vo. 77pp. Top edge lightly spotted, else in virtually fine state with triflingly nicked and faded dust wrapper, with Poetry Book Society wrap-around. Twenty poems plus the title piece, a Dialogue for Three Voices written for the BBC and first broadcast in January 1951. £20

EDGELL RICKWORD. Invocations to Angels and The Happy New Year. Wishart & Co., London 1928. First edition. This copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to an un-named recipient. Slim 8vo. 76pp. Cloth-backed patterned paper boards. Corner tips very gently rubbed and with a single tiny indentation to the rear board. Free endpaper lightly spotted and browned, and with a light but lengthy vertical crease to the first three leaves. A very good copy in dust wrapper, toned at the spine panel and with a little further but lighter toning to the margins of the front and rear panels, and several tiny slivers of edge-loss. Striking bookplate of author and bookseller Noel Lloyd (Hermitage Books) to the front pastedown. The author’s second collection of verse (“One of the unsung masterpieces of the decade” – The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines). £225

SIEGFRIED SASSOON. Vigils. Poems. Heinemann, London 1935. First trade edition. Slim 8vo. 35pp. Buckram, faded at the backstrip and lightly marked in one or two places. A little light spotting throughout. A very crisp and bright copy, lacking the dust wrapper. Thirty-five poems, twelve more than in the limited issue of a year earlier. Keynes A39d. £20

SIEGFRIED SASSOON. Rhymed Ruminations. Poems. Faber, London 1940. The first trade and first casebound edition, following a limited edition of seventy-five copies. Slim 8vo. 52pp. Cloth lightly spotted with some damp markings to top edge of upper and lower boards encroaching to pastedowns. A tiny hint of spotting to endpapers and half-title, else an extremely crisp and bright copy internally, in very slightly marked and chafed dust wrapper, with a single short closed tear and some tanning to the spine panel. Forty-two poems. £30

FRANCIS SCARFE. Inscapes. Poems. The Fortune Press, London 1940. First edition. Slim 8vo. 63pp. With a caricature portrait frontispiece. Covers just a little spotted. A bright copy in slightly nicked and chafed dust wrapper. Forty poems. £25

JO SHAPCOTT. Electroplating the Baby. Poems. Bloodaxe Books, Newcastle upon Tyne 1988. First edition of Shapcott’s first book – this copy signed by the author on the title-page. Slim 8vo. 64pp. Card wrappers (never issued in casebound format). A tiny trace of chafing to head of rear wrapper, else in fine state. Sixty-two poems, winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. £35

JO SHAPCOTT. Of Mutability. Poems. Faber, London 2010. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. Slim 8vo. 54pp. In fine state with fine dust wrapper. Forty-five poems, the author's first collection of verse for twelve years and winner of the Costa Book Award. £40

KEN SMITH. Work, Distances. Poems. The Swallow Press, Chicago 1972. First edition. A presentation copy, boldly inscribed by the author on the title page and dated three years after publication. 8vo. 98pp. Top edge very lightly spotted and with just a trace of wear to the spine ends. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, lightly dust soiled and with just a touch of chafing and edgewear. Sixty poems, the author’s third collection of verse, published whilst he was teaching in various US collages. There was no equivalent UK edition. £35

STEPHEN SPENDER. Twenty Poems. Basil Blackwell, Oxford [1930]. First edition of the author’s second book, [printed at the Shakespeare head Press] and limited to 135 copies – this being number 8 of 75 copies signed by the author.  Slim 8vo. 23pp. Card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper which serves at the title page. The covers a little marked and tanned, and the lower yapped edge slightly nicked. A very good copy. £375

STEPHEN SPENDER. I Sit at the Window. A broadsheet poem. [Linden Press, Widdington] [c.1940]. First edition of the fifth Linden Broadsheet poem, limited to 175 numbered copies, signed on the reverse by the author (this being #47). A single sheet measuring 29cm x 22cm, and featuring a handsome three-colour drawing by Honor Frost, into which Spender’s twenty-five line poem has been set. In virtually fine state. In total six Linden Broadsheets were issued, between 1939-40, all of which are now extremely uncommon. £200

STEPHEN SPENDER. The Generous Days. Faber, London 1971. First edition. Slim 8vo. 47pp. Top edge lightly spotted, else in fine state with fine dust wrapper. ‘Guido’ Morris-designed former owner bookplate to front pastedown. Forty-three poems. £10

NATHANIEL TARN. Where Babylon Ends. Poems. Cape Goliard, London 1968. First edition, one of a limited issue of 50 signed and numbered copies. Slim 8vo. Thirty leaves of unpaginated text. Paper-covered boards. With an illustrated double-spread title page, one drawing and two overlays.  Tip of one corner bumped. Very good indeed in price-clipped and fractionally edge worn dust wrapper. The author’s second collection of verse. £35

JAMES TATE. The Lost Pilot. Poems. With a foreword by Dudley Fitts. Yale University Press, ‘Yale Younger Poets’ series, New Haven and London 1967. First edition. Slim 8vo. xii, 72pp. Patterned paper-covered boards. The top edge spotted, and a former owner name neatly inked to the tip of the front free endpaper. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly toned at the spine panel, with just a touch of minor edge-wear, and a light but lengthy vertical crease to the front flap. A four-page foreword by Dudley Fitts (who also edits this series) precedes fifty-four poems. The author’s second book (following his 1966 chapbook Cages), published whilst he was still a student at the Writer’s Workshop. Tate would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award for his Selected Poems (1991). £150

DYLAN THOMAS. From ‘In Memory of Anne Jones’. The Caseg Press, Llanllechid [1924]. First edition of the fifth number of the Caseg broadsheets, of which 500 copies were printed. A single sheet measuring 27.3cm x 18.5cm. Thomas’ thirty-one-line extract (from a poem originally printed in The Map of Love, with the first nine lines here omitted and with one minor textual alteration, which Rolph suggests may be a misprint), accompanied by a specially executed black and white drawing by Brenda Chamberlain. A touch of occasional superficial creasing and just a hint of fox-spotting to the extreme edges. A virtually fine copy of this Caseg broadsheet, all of which are now extremely uncommon (in total six were issued, with two more reaching the final proofing stage before financial constraints and ultimately the death of Alun Lewis brought the creative endeavour to a halt). Rolph B8. £250

R.S.THOMAS. Experimenting with an Amen. Poems. Macmillan, London 1986. First edition. Slim 8vo. 70pp. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, marred only by a little fading to the publisher’s red spine panel colouring. Sixty-seven poems. £30

RUTHVEN TODD. Until Now. Poems. Fortune Press, London [1942]. First edition. 51pp. Some edges of covers a little faded. Quite a bright copy in stained and slightly rubbed dust wrapper. Handsome former owner bookplate to front endpaper. Thirty-nine poems. £40

CHARLES TOMLINSON. The Necklace. Poems. With a five-page introduction by Donald Davie and a new one-page preface by the author. Oxford University Press, London 1966. The second edition – and first casebound issue - of the author’s second collection of verse, originally issued by the Fantasy Press in 1955. This copy fondly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated March 1969. Slim 8vo. 16pp. Two or three instances of light pencilled marginalia (which could easily be erased if desired). A virtually fine copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, lightly tanned at the spine panel and with a tiny hint of chafing to one or two extremities. Fifteen poems. £25

JOHN WAIN. Wildtrack. A poem. Macmillan, London 1965. First edition. Slim 8vo. 50pp. Pictorial boards featuring a striking design by Victor Reinganum, repeated on the dust wrapper. A fine copy in virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper. £10

DEREK WALCOTT. Tiepolo's Hound. A poem. With twenty-six colour-plates reproducing the author’s paintings. Faber, London 2000. First edition. Small 4to. 164pp. A touch of very light wear to the spine ends. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, with just a touch of corresponding wear to the spine panel ends and a short crease to the front flap. £35

ALICE WALKER. Her Blue Body Everything We Know. Earthling Poems 1965-1990 Complete. The Women’s Press, London 1991. The first UK edition, issued the same year as the US edition but somewhat more uncommon. This copy signed by the author on the half-title. 8vo. xvi, 463pp. A tiny bump to the tip of one corner and just a hint of tanning to the leaf margins. A virtually fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A two-page preface by the author precedes her complete collected poems, arranged chronologically and including new introductions to the four primary collections. The following collections are represented in full: Once, Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems, Revolutionary Petunias…The Living Through, Crucifixions, Mysteries…The Living Beyond, The Nature of This Flower is to Bloom, Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning, On Stripping Back Myself…, Early Losses: A Requiem, Facing the Way, Forgiveness, Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful and We Have a Beautiful Mother: Previously Uncollected Poems. £75

SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER. Time Importuned. Poems. Chatto & Windus, London 1928. First edition. 8vo. Covers slightly faded at spine and some edges and spine-label nicked. No jacket. £40

SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER AND VALENTINE ACKLAND. Whether a Dove or Seagull. Poems. The Viking Press, New York 1933. The correct first edition, preceding the UK edition. This copy inscribed by Valentine Ackland: "Ruth, with dearest love - Valentine 1933" and beneath this Townsend Warner has pencilled her Christian name. 8vo. 153pp. Cloth-backed paper boards with slightly defective gilt lettering to the spine. A little light spotting to the preliminary and concluding leaves, and occasionally throughout. A very good copy in dust wrapper: tanned, stained, chafed, nicked and chipped with a little loss, and the spine panel lettering no longer visible. One-hundred and nine poems, fifty-four of them by Warner and the remainder written by her lover and long-term partner Ackland (an index in the UK edition of 1934 identified the author of each poem, but here they remain entirely anonymous - although a former owner has pencilled appropriate initials against each index entry, which could be easily erased if desired). A challenging and valiant experiment in anonymity, the collection was received coldly, all but ending the poetry careers of both authors Warner did not issue another full collection of verse in her lifetime, claiming in a letter to the publisher of her 1985 Selected Poems "I intend to be a posthumous poet!" Both US and UK editions are extremely scarce and much more so with the penmanship of both authors (I have been unable to identify 'Ruth'; it was the name of Ackland's mother, although it seems unlikely that she would address her so). £550

ANDREW WATERMAN. Living Room. Poems. The Marvell Press, London 1974. First edition, one of 100 numbered copies, signed by the author on the copyright page (this being #71). Slim 8vo. 56pp. Free endpapers a little browned and with a touch of occasional, mostly marginal fox spotting. Two former owner names to the front free endpaper, and some pencilled notes to the rear endpaper (which could be easily erased is desired). A very good copy in nicked and a little dust soiled dust wrapper, with two small portions of edge-loss. The author’s first collection of verse, and a Poetry Book Society Choice (the judges at the time being Philip Larkin and Dannie Abse). Forty-seven poems including the thirty-five line A Landscape for Edward Thomas, and the eleven-part Railway Poems based on four summers work as a Leicester railway porter. Uncommon. £35

VERNON WATKINS. The Death Bell. Poems and Ballads. Faber, London 1954. First edition. Slim 8vo. 112pp. Edges and leaf margins lightly spotted. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly chafed at the head of the spine panel and with a single lone fox-spot blemish and a short tear and accompanying crease to the upper edge of the rear panel. Former owner bookplate to the front pastedown.  Twenty-one poems and eight ballads, the author’s fourth collection of verse. £20

VERNON WATKINS. Cypress and Acacia. Poems. Faber, London 1959. First edition. Slim 8vo. 102pp. A touch of spotting to the top edge, else in fine state with virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper, very lightly faded at the spine panel. Former owner bookplate to the front pastedown. Forty-seven poems, the author’s fifth collection of verse. £20

VERNON WATKINS. The Collected Poems of Vernon Watkins. Golgonooza Press, Ipswich 1986. The first trade edition of this collection of nearly four hundred poems, which comprises the seven collections published in Watkins’ lifetime, plus his three posthumous collections. 8vo. 495pp. Very good indeed in lightly edgeworn dust wrapper, somewhat sunned at spine panel. This copy from the library of David Gascoyne, with his neat bookplate to the front pastedown. £75

DOROTHY WELLESLEY. Desert Wells. Poems. Michael Joseph, London 1946. First edition. Slim 8vo. 55pp. A little spotting to front endpaper else a very crisp and bright copy, albeit printed on cheap quality wartime paper. In slightly marked else very good dust wrapper. Forty-two poems. £10

RICHARD WILBUR. Collected Poems 1943-2004. Harcourt, Inc., New York 2004. First edition. 8vo. xvi, 585pp. Cloth-backed boards. A trace of wear to the backstrip ends, else a virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at the upper edge. A two-page introductory note by the author precedes over three hundred poems selected by the poet. £25

CHARLES WILLIAMS. Divorce. Poems. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London 1920. First edition. 8vo. 120pp. Top edge lightly spotted, with some spotting and discolouration to the backstrip cloth. A strip of light partial browning to the free endpapers. Former owner details, dated 1955, neatly inked to the front free endpaper. Binding just a little tender at the title leaf and at two other gatherings, and with a small area of surface abrasion to the inner margin of one text leaf, not impacting the text. A nice bright copy in dust wrapper, split into two parts at the rear panel-spine panel join, and a little chipped, nicked and tanned, but now protected and presenting respectably. Fifty-eight poems, the author’s third collection of verse. £150