Poem of the Month Club: A Portfolio of 48 Signed Broadsides including: The Explosion, Philip Larkin; Natural Linguistics (for Peter Salus), W.H. Auden; A Wembley lad ; The Crem, John Betjeman; Land, Seamus Heaney; Clonalis ; Culleenamore, Kathleen Raine; Wasted ; Kipling at Batemans, Kingsley Amis etc

Individually issued as the 'poem of the month' between 1970-1974 and again in 1977, each broadside is signed by the author and the poems are in fine condition. Around a dozen A4 size introductory and biographical sheets and lists which were issued by the club to accompany some of the poems are laid in. The large portfolio is in very good condition with a little rubbing to extremities.

The Poem of the Month Club was founded in 1970 by Jack H. Clark and Winston Fletcher with a mission to publish a 'substantial and characteristic' original poem by a leading British poet. Among the poets published by the club were W.H. Auden, Robert Graves, Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin, Cecil Day-Lewis, John Betjeman and Stevie Smith. Roy Fuller and the poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis advised the club and helped to solicit and select poems for publication with a stellar cast of contributors for the first two folios. The club eventually fell victim to declining interest and the increased difficulty in finding new material.

The collection comprises: (Folio 1) Francesca in Winter / Stevie Smith -- Going my way? / C. Day Lewis -- The explosion / Roy Fuller -- Art student / Stephen Spender -- Advice from a mother / Robert Graves -- At Dunkeswell Abbey / Anthony Thwaite -- Annotations of Giant's Town / John Fuller -- Hurt / 2 x Elizabeth Jennings -- What is mercy and a voice / George Barker -- Midnights / Norman MacCaig -- Epigrams by Martial / Peter Porter.

(Folio 2) Natural linguistics (for Peter Salus) / W.H. Auden -- Night / Douglas Dunn -- In the Basilica of the Annunciation / D.J. Enright -- Photograph / John Lehmann -- Transformation scene / Alan Brownjohn -- Last days at Teddington / Thom Gunn -- Presence / Glyn Hughes -- Land / Seamus Heaney -- A Calcutta grandmother / Alan Ross -- Anniversary ; Vigil / Ian Hamilton -- Venus / Gavin Ewart.

(Folio 3) Cherry blossom / Hugo Williams -- John Berryman, 1914-1972 / Ruthven Todd -- Notes by the provincial governor / Philip Oakes -- The man who built his city in snow (in memoriam Wallace Stephens 1879-1955) / by Derek Mahon -- Doomsday (suggested by parts of the O.E. poem Christ) / Harold Massingham -- The eminent professors and the nature of poetry as enacted out by members of the poetry seminar one rainy evening / Brian Patten -- The legacy / A. Alvarez -- Small secrets : for Patrick Collins / John Montague -- Spanish balcony / Patricia Beer -- Three poems written in Ireland, August 1972 : To friends in Sligo ; Clonalis ; Culleenamore / Kathleen Raine -- The wooing of Becfola (after the Irish) / Austin Clarke -- Wish you were here / Vernon Scannell.

(Folio 4.) The ancestral face / Neil Rhodes -- Wasted ; Kipling at Batemans / Kingsley Amis -- From an Australian country sequence / Geoffrey Lehmann -- The first folio / Geoffrey Grigson -- A reflection on Auden / Julian Symons -- The speckled bush / Molly Holden -- Hard of hearing / Norman Nicholson -- Orpheus / Donald Davie -- Lunchtime / Dannie Abse -- Casualty ward / Robert Conquest -- In focus / Fleur Adcock -- The marriage of Figaro / James Reeves.