In Country Sleep by THOMAS, Dylan - 1952: and other poems.

New York: New Directions,, 1952. Inscribed to a fellow poet and White Horse Tavern regular First edition, signed limited issue, number 16 of 100 copies, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to his friend and fellow poet, José Garcia Villa (1908-1997), who at the time was an associate editor at New Directions: "For Jose Garcia Villa, yours, Dylan Thomas May 1952". Thomas would die the following year, after leaving the White Horse Tavern, the Greenwich Village institution where he and Villa were sometime drinking companions. Villa, a much acclaimed poet and painter, and recipient of numerous accolades, including the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973, a Guggenheim Fellowship by Conrad Aiken, and an Academy Award for Literature in 1943, was one of many friends who would publish verses in Dylan's honour: "Sleep,Dylan.Sleep,gentle,genius.[...]Commandant,incendiar,oh,nightgold,Forerunning,verb,myth-hard,he,stands" (Villa, p. 189). This volume notably includes the first appearance in book form of "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" (pp. 18-19). One of the most circulated photographs of Villa was taken outside of the memorial for Thomas held at St Luke's chapel in New York in 1953. Octavo. Original olive green cloth, front and spine lettered in gilt, top edge red. With dust jacket. Housed in the brown paper slipcase, with printed label, as issued. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Photographic portrait mounted on title page. A fine copy, spine a little cocked, in the sharp, unclipped jacket, a little toned, single nick to front flap, else fresh, a few spots of rubbing and light offsetting to slipcase. José Garcia Villa, "Death and Dylan Thomas", Doveglion: Collected Poems, ed. John Cowen, 2008.