Poetry | Invisible Books

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Please click on the titles to view images of the books listed below.

Constanzo Allione, Allen Ginsberg | Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds | Mystic Fire | 1989 | 18007278433 VHS – 55 minute 1978 film narrated by Ginsberg & featuring Burroughs, Leary, Di Prima, Baraka & many other luminaries. I’m offering this video as a trophy only, as I have absolutely no way of testing it, but it is quite a glorious object in its own right. | £20

John Ashbery | As We Know | Carcanet | 1981 | hardback in jacket – overall, a very good copy but please note the following faults: lettering on spine has faded a tone; back cover of jacket is sunned; edge of page block foxed; previous owner’s signature on reverse of ffep | £40

W. H. Auden | A Certain World | Faber | 1971 | 057109466X Second impression in price-clipped jacket. The spine of the jacket is sunned, & the title & publisher’s name, both in red ink, have faded. The book is noticeably slant, with the front cover set forward. Gift inscription on ffep. No problem with text pages. | £40

W. H. Auden | The Orators | Faber | 1966 | Third edition in unclipped jacket. Red band on spine very slightly faded. Front cover set a little forward. Intermittent foxing to pages, which show some signs of handling. A good-looking copy but evidently secondhand. | £40

Sinclair Beiles | Ashes of Experience | Wurm | 1969 | Quite fervent dedication from author on ffep, along with dedicatee’s signature & rubber stamp duplicating the price on the front flap. Predominantly white cover is worn & marked, outer edge of page block is dusty & marked, & lower corner of ffep is lightly marked | £100

Emily Bronte; Philip Henderson (sel., intr.) | Poems | Lawson and Dunn | 1947 | Very good copy in unclipped jacket. Spine & upper edge of jacket are sunned, some loss to edges, most evident at top of spine. Price has been increased in ink on front flap. Previous owner’s labels on ffep & rear pastedown. | £30

George Chapman (trans); Henry Morley (intr.) | Homer’s Iliad | Routledge | 1884 | Morley’s Universal Library edition. Reading copy only. Cover is worn, with no title on spine (presumably a label has come adrift at some time). Front endpaper is detached, with loss to its edge. Rear hinge is exposed & fragile. Ownership signature on prelims. Text pages are foxed, but otherwise unproblematic. | £15

Walter W. Skeat [ed.] | The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: Volume I: Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems | Clarendon Press | 1926 | Second edition. A couple of little nicks to top edge of the spine. Gilt decoration a little rubbed at base of spine. | £20

Walter W. Skeat [ed.] | The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: Volume IV: The Canterbury Tales: Text | Clarendon Press | 1940 | Second edition. A little rip to the very top of the spine. Gilt decoration a little rubbed at base of spine. Outer edge of pageblock lightly marked. | £20

Lawrence Ferlinghetti | Back Roads to Far Towns after Basho | 1971 | 2nd printing, outer edge of page block is foxed, otherwise a very good copy | £35

Ted Hughes; Peter Keen (photos) | River | Faber | 1983 | 571130887 First printing in unclipped jacket. Jacket is sunned, with a light stain at the bottom of the spine, & a nick at the top of the fold of the front panel / spine. Internally, the book is in excellent condition. | £75

Walter Savage Landor | The Hellenics, comprising Heroic Idyls, &c. | Nichol | 1859 | New Edition, Enlarged. Bookplate stuck over outline of larger removed bookplate on front pastedown; ownership signatures on ffep. Some wear to extremities of spine, endpapers etc. foxed. | £30

David Mallet: The Works of David Mallet : 3 volumes in 1. Georg Olms 2002 hardback with light wear to cover. £50

Vladimir Mayakovsky | Vladimir Ilyich Lenin | Progress | 1976 | A handsome copy in dustjacket. The spine of the jacket is faded, & a little worn at the top. There is some foxing to the pale cloth cover of the book, which has also picked up some very faint offset from the red reverse side of the jacket. There is an old sterling price marked in blue pencil on the first page of the book. | £30

Shovkat Niyazi | Voices of Friends : Soviet Poets | Progress | 1973 | hardback in jacket – white background of jacket is sunned, & there are several short closed tears at the edge – gift inscription on ffep, marks have been put beside a number of poems in the Contents list | £17.50

Kenneth Patchen | Hallelujah Anyway | New Directions | n.d. | Hardback with pictorial cover in unclipped jacket. Spine of jacket is faded but fully legible, edges of jacket are worn. Very top of spine of the hardcover is sunned. Pre-decimal sterling price is marked on front flap in pencil. | £40

Kenneth Patchen (illus.), Miriam Patchen (intr.), Herman Berlandt & Neeli Cherkovski (eds) | Peace or Perish: A Crisis Anthology | Poets for Peace | 1983 | Anthology including work by Diane di Prima, Robert Creeley & Allen Ginsberg, inscribed by Herman Berlandt on ffep. Some wear to cover & edge, a couple of small pressure marks on back cover, which have left a faint impression on the last few pages of the book. | £30

J. H. Prynne: Sub Songs. Barque 2010. Super colossal stapled pamphlet, light wear to cover. £100

Kenneth Rexroth | Poetry Readings in the Cellar | audio cd – disc in excellent condition, light wear to cover | £90

Gary Snyder | Passage through India | Grey Fox | 1983 | 0912516801 Spine & edge of cover sunned; back cover lightly rubbed; top corner lightly bowed; outer edge of pageblock lightly foxed; lower edge of pageblock dustmarked; no problem with text pages | £10

Maung Myint Thien | Burmese Folk-Songs | Writers Workshop | 1987 | Second edition. Cover is patchily sunned, a little bumped at the top edge & at the extremities of the spine. The printed band around the cover is held in place beneath a removable clear plastic cover. Although the plastic cover is in damaged condition, with considerable loss around the spine, I am leaving it on the book to protect the band. The text pages themselves are in very good condition. | £20

Alexander Trocchi; William Burroughs [intr.] | Man at Leisure | Calder & Boyars | 1972 | 0714503584 White background of card cover lightly foxed, top of spine lightly bumped, top outer corner of page-block lightly bumped, top outer corner of first page rubbed from the erasure of an old pencilled price, endpapers foxed. Still a good-looking copy. | £30

Derek Walcott | Castaway | 1969 paperback edition, lamination is starting to bubble on the cover, Trinidadian book shop label on reverse of front cover, light reading crease to prelims, no problem with text pages | £30

Lew Welch | How I Work as a Poet | 2001 | some wear to corners, edge foxed, back cover lightly scuffed – text pages unmarked | £50

Louis Zukofsky | Ferdinand | Cape Editions | 1968 | £20