Twenty Poems. (SIGNED LIMITED EDITION) by STEPHEN SPENDER

Printed for the editor at The Curwen Press, London, 1958. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. Signed by Illustrator(s). 1st Edition. The first edition of this selection, and the first with these magnificent Reynolds Stone engravings. 4to. 94pp. One of 300 copies (out of a total edition of 350) designed by Will Carter, printed on Basingwerk parchment, bound in buckram and signed by Reynolds Stone. Stone contributes a title page decoration, five wood engraved plates and a small closing vignette; plus a small gilt decoration to upper board. Buckram just fractionally marked in one or two places, else a fine copy. No dust wrapper, as issued. Twenty-three poems (including the eleven-parter 'Flying Scrolls'), six of which are hitherto unprinted with several others making their first bookform appearance..

Winchester School of Art Press, [1984?]. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. Signed by Illustrator(s). 1st Edition. First edition, limited to fifty numbered copies (this being #19). A suite of ten loose folding sheets of 250gsm BFK Rives paper, with a poem to each verso and an etching to the adjacent recto, each signed by the artist, and housed in the original folding cloth-covered and blind-lettered portfolio with linen ties. A hint of browning and spotting to the extreme edges of several sheets, else a fine copy of a scarce and very elegant production, which includes signed etchings by noted Irish-Scots artist and Aosdána member William Crozier, and print maker Elaine Shemilt, plus Frances Caynes, Lorraine Dabin, Camilla Edwards, Richard Harvey, James Heward, Sarah James, Ruth O Dell and Andrew Smith. The poets contributing are Fleur Adcock, Alan Brownjohn, Keven Crossley-Holland, Vicki Feaver, Jeremy Hooker, Glyn Hughes, John Mole, Andrew Motion, Judith Nutter and Ted Walker..

The Fortune Press, London, 1945. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. First edition of the author's first book, this being in un-noted binding variant in grey cloth, lettered in gold at the 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..

The Poetry Bookshop, London, 1920. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 2nd Edition. A new revised edition of the author's first book, and the first hardback issue (originally issued in wrappers four years earlier). Slim 8vo. 32pp. Cloth-backed decorated boards featuring a Menin Gate design by Claud Lovat Fraser. Top edge dusty. Endpapers browned. Head and tail of spine and corner tips bumped and a little rubbed. Covers very slightly marked and one binding string to the first gathering snapped. A very good copy in nicked, rubbed and marked, slightly creased, chipped and dusty dust wrapper which repeats the Lovat Fraser design, browned at the spine and at some edges and with the publisher's price sticker to the front panel. Twenty-four poems, divided into two parts: 'Poems Mostly Written at Charterhouse 1910-1914' and 'Poems Written Before La Bassée - 1915'. 1,000 copies were printed. Higginson A1b / Reilly pp 146-7. "When these poems, written between the ages of fourteen and… Read More

Richard Gilbertson, 'The Manuscript Series', Crediton, 1970. Book. Very Good. Soft cover. Signed by Author(s). 2nd Edition. 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… Read More

Printed for the editor at The Curwen Press, London, 1958. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. Signed by Illustrator(s). 1st Edition. The first edition of this selection, and the first with these magnificent Reynolds Stone engravings. 4to. 94pp. One of 300 copies (out of a total edition of 350) designed by Will Carter, printed on Basingwerk parchment, bound in buckram and signed by Reynolds Stone. Stone contributes a title page decoration, five wood engraved plates and a small closing vignette; plus a small gilt decoration to upper board. Buckram just fractionally marked in one or two places, else a fine copy. No dust wrapper, as issued. Twenty-three poems (including the eleven-parter 'Flying Scrolls'), six of which are hitherto unprinted with several others making their first bookform appearance..

Winchester School of Art Press, [1984?]. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. Signed by Illustrator(s). 1st Edition. First edition, limited to fifty numbered copies (this being #19). A suite of ten loose folding sheets of 250gsm BFK Rives paper, with a poem to each verso and an etching to the adjacent recto, each signed by the artist, and housed in the original folding cloth-covered and blind-lettered portfolio with linen ties. A hint of browning and spotting to the extreme edges of several sheets, else a fine copy of a scarce and very elegant production, which includes signed etchings by noted Irish-Scots artist and Aosdána member William Crozier, and print maker Elaine Shemilt, plus Frances Caynes, Lorraine Dabin, Camilla Edwards, Richard Harvey, James Heward, Sarah James, Ruth O Dell and Andrew Smith. The poets contributing are Fleur Adcock, Alan Brownjohn, Keven Crossley-Holland, Vicki Feaver, Jeremy Hooker, Glyn Hughes, John Mole, Andrew Motion, Judith Nutter and Ted Walker..

The Fortune Press, London, 1945. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. First edition of the author's first book, this being in un-noted binding variant in grey cloth, lettered in gold at the 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..

The Poetry Bookshop, London, 1920. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 2nd Edition. A new revised edition of the author's first book, and the first hardback issue (originally issued in wrappers four years earlier). Slim 8vo. 32pp. Cloth-backed decorated boards featuring a Menin Gate design by Claud Lovat Fraser. Top edge dusty. Endpapers browned. Head and tail of spine and corner tips bumped and a little rubbed. Covers very slightly marked and one binding string to the first gathering snapped. A very good copy in nicked, rubbed and marked, slightly creased, chipped and dusty dust wrapper which repeats the Lovat Fraser design, browned at the spine and at some edges and with the publisher's price sticker to the front panel. Twenty-four poems, divided into two parts: 'Poems Mostly Written at Charterhouse 1910-1914' and 'Poems Written Before La Bassée - 1915'. 1,000 copies were printed. Higginson A1b / Reilly pp 146-7. "When these poems, written between the ages of fourteen and… Read More

Richard Gilbertson, 'The Manuscript Series', Crediton, 1970. Book. Very Good. Soft cover. Signed by Author(s). 2nd Edition. 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… Read More