ID 1016420
Lot 103 | 18 Poems
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Dylan Thomas
Dylan THOMAS (1914-1953). 18 Poems. London: The Sunday Referee and The Parton Bookshop, 1934.
First edition, first issue of Thomas’s first book: the poet’s own copy, with authorial inscriptions presenting the book at different times to two separate love interests. One of just 250 copies of the first issue.
Thomas’s first book of poems, which ‘shattered for those who discovered [it] the whole revolutionary optimism of the thirties’ (Connolly), contains one of his finest and most famous pieces, ‘The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower’, written at just 19 years of age. An authorial inscription in ink on the front pastedown, crossed through in ink and pencil, presents this copy to Thomas’s first serious girlfriend, the writer Pamela Hansford Johnson, whom he came close to marrying: ‘To Pamela who knows very well the things I’ll suggest if she’s going to write on the front of this pawky book’. Another authorial inscription, in pencil, records this as ‘My Own Copy’, before a final pencil note, ‘Given to Emily in 1937’, points to its presentation to another of the poet’s romantic associations, the American writer Emily Homes Coleman. Rolph B1a.
Octavo. (A few spots.) Original black cloth, flat back, spine lettered in gilt (faint marks to cloth, slightly worn at corners and spine ends, two tiny tears at upper joint); original printed dust-jacket (somewhat darkened, faint spots, a few small chips, long tear at one fold, three tape repairs on reverse); red cloth chemise and slipcase. Provenance: Pamela Hansford Johnson (1912-1981; authorial presentation inscription) – Emily Holmes Coleman (1899-1974; authorial inscription).
Place of origin: | Northern Europe, Europe, United Kingdom |
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Auction house category: | Printed books |
Place of origin: | Northern Europe, Europe, United Kingdom |
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Auction house category: | Printed books |
Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | |
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Preview |
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Phone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
Buyer Premium | see on Website | |
Conditions of purchase | Conditions of purchase |
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