Door Into the Dark [Signed] by HEANEY, Seamus (1939-2013) - 1969

New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. First American Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First printing of the Nobel prize-winner's second commercially published work (preceded by Death of a Naturalist, in 1966), one of only 1,000 copies (purchased from Faber and Faber, Heaney's London publisher). Tall, slim 8vo: 56pp. Publisher's finely woven black cloth, spine stamped in gilt; cream-colored dust jacket printed in red and green and priced $3.75. Signed by Heaney on title page and dated 18th March 1971, beneath which appears: "to set the darkness echoing" (from the final line of Heaney's poem Personal Helicon, in Death of a Naturalist). Virtually As New (former owner's short last name in small hand on front flyleaf), very tight, square and unread; about Fine jacket, fresh and bright, with single short closed tear to top of jacket's back panel. A superb copy, with an uncommon early signature. Brandes & Durkan A5. "Seamus Heaney has been, for good or ill, internationally the most prominent and the most popular Irish poet of the latter part of the twentieth century and the first part of the twenty-first. . . . His first two collections, Death of a Naturalist and Door into the Dark, largely written before the renewed outbreak of the so-called 'Troubles' in 1968, show Heaney alerting his audience to the violent history of colonisation on his native ground, but preoccupied also by the rhythms of life in a rural setting remembered from his childhood. He also, in a Wordsworthian manner, focuses upon the sources and resources of his own poetic voice and power." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed.