W. H. AUDEN FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
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UNITED KINGDOM

London : Faber & Faber, (1938). First edition. A play in prose and verse – intrigue and conflict between two imaginary neighbouring countries, with pronounced echoes of contemporary politics.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (124),[iv]pp. Original red cloth, lettered down spine in gilt; a few slight spots, but a very good and bright copy in a very lightly rubbed and slightly chipped dust-jacket. Bloomfield A18a.

£75

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London : Faber & Faber, (1938). First edition. A review copy, with the publishers’ slip loosely inserted. A play in prose and verse – intrigue and conflict between two imaginary neighbouring countries, with pronounced echoes of contemporary politics.
Demy 8vo (23cm). (124),[iv]pp. Original red cloth, lettered in gilt; some spotting, mainly of edges, but a very good, bright and partly unopened copy in a very lightly worn and slightly tanned dust-jacket. Bloomfield A18a.

£125

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London : Faber & Faber, (1940). First British edition : [one of 2,000 copies]. One of the finest and most celebrated collections of poetry of the twentieth century, including the first appearance in book form of “Lay your sleeping head, my love”, “Musée des Beaux Arts”, “Spain 1937”, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”, “September 1, 1939”, “Funeral Blues”, etc. “Certainly his best collection of poems ... Auden was for many of us the last poet we learnt by heart” (Cyril Connolly).
Demy 8vo (23cm). (126),[ii]pp. Original red cloth, lettered in gilt; very mild tanning of endpapers; a few edge-spots, but a very good, bright and sound copy in the original orange and black dust-jacket – very faintly sunned, a little rubbed, very slightly creased, with a few minuscule nicks, chips and tiny flaws, but overall still in very good state. Bloomfield & Mendelson A22b. Connolly (Modern Movement) 90.

SOLD

London : Faber & Faber, (1954). First edition. A poem in the New Series of the Ariel Poems.
Demy 8vo (22cm). [8]pp. Title-page, colour lithograph, and tailpiece by Edward Bawden. Original self-wrappers, printed black on pale yellow; a fine copy in the original pink envelope – itself near fine. Bloomfield & Mendelson A34.

£25

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[Oxford : Oxford University Press], 1958. First edition : [one of 1,500 copies]. The Latin and English texts of Auden’s June 1958 formal oration as Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (24)pp. Original white stapled self-wrappers, printed in black; staples just slightly rusted, but a very good copy. Together with a photocopy of the similar 1956 publication (G25). From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden’s bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson G26.

£25

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[Oxford : Oxford University Press], 1960. First edition: [one of 1,500 copies]. The Latin and English texts of Auden’s June 1960 formal oration as Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
Demy 8vo (22cm). (16)pp. Original white stapled self-wrappers, printed in black; staples a little rusted, but otherwise a very good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden’s bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson G27.

£25

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Darmstadt : J. G. Bläschke Verlag, (1965). First edition : [one of 1,500 copies]. Two Auden poems – including one in memory of Louis MacNeice. A parallel English/German text edition, with the German translations by Dieter Leisegang.
Demy 8vo (21cm). [24]pp. Frontispiece. Original pale yellow stiffened wrappers, printed in black; a few very faint marks, but a very good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden’s bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson A50.

£20

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London : Oxford University Press, (1966). First edition. The sheet music for Walton’s “Anthem for the Feast of Any Apostle”, first performed at Oxford in 1965, together with Auden’s words.
Royal 8vo (26cm). [ii],30pp. Original brown and pale yellow stapled wrappers; price label of the American distributor on upper wrapper, but otherwise a very good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden’s bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson B97.

£25

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London : Faber & Faber, (1969). First edition. A late collection of thirty-six poems, etc., including “Bird Language”, “The Song of the Devil”, the “Eight Songs from Mother Courage” sequence, etc. “A major poet wonderfully articulate at his slippered unease” (Keith Brace, Birmingham Daily Post, 4th October 1969).
Demy 8vo (23cm). 124,[iv]pp. Original black cloth, lettered in gilt; slight mark to upper cover, but otherwise a very good clean and sound copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket just slightly tanned at spine and with a few small marks, but very good and unworn.

£40

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London : Faber & Faber, (1983). First British edition. A dedication copy, with the publishers’ compliments slip loosely inserted, and from the collection of Barry and Valerie Bloomfield, the dedicatees. Professor Mendelson had collaborated with Barry Bloomfield on the Auden bibliography. A history and interpretation of the work to 1939.
Foolscap 4to (25cm). (xxiv),(408)pp. Original boards; very good in the dust-jacket – and with some related press-cuttings loosely inserted.

£40

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Princeton : Princeton University Press, (1993). First edition. Libretti, radio plays, film narratives, lyrics, translations, etc., with full critical notes and apparatus. The second volume of the Complete Works, edited by Edward Mendelson. From the collection of the late B. C. Bloomfield, Auden’s bibliographer.
Medium 8vo (25cm). [2],xxxvi,758,[iv]pp. Original burgundy cloth, blocked in black and ruled and lettered in gilt; just a touch bruised, but a very good copy in the maroon, black and white dust-jacket, also just a touch bruised.

£40

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New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (1999). First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed to “Barry & Val [Bloomfield] – who let this happen” and signed with forename by the author. (Mendelson had earlier collaborated with Barry Bloomfield on Auden’s bibliography). The highly thought-of biography of Auden’s later life.
Crown 4to (24cm). xxii,570pp. Original cloth; a very good copy in a just slightly bruised dust-jacket.

£40

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