George Mackay Brown’s copy, inscribed by him in blue ink to the half title page: “George M Brown / April 1952 / Newbattle”. One of the leading Scottish poets of the twentieth century, Brown has annotated the book towards the rear, adding three manuscript poems in blue ink. The first of these is ‘Epitaphs’ by Ezra Pound, the second a fragment from the ancient Greek poet Alcman, and the third ‘The Late Swallow’ by fellow-Orcadian poet Edwin Muir, who had been a great influence on Brown. Pleasingly, it was at Newbattle Abbey College during the 1951-52 session (during which Brown inscribed and annotated the present book), that he first encountered Muir, who served there as warden between 1950-55. The pair subsequently became friends, with Muir supporting Brown’s endeavours, most notably providing the foreword to Brown’s first anthology ‘The Storm’ (1954), of which he remarked: “Grace is what I find in these poems.”
A wide-ranging anthology of poetry, music, games, and humour from Francis Meynell’s Nonesuch Press.
DESCRIPTION: Fourteenth impression. Publisher’s original red cloth with blind-stamped decoration to the upper board and titles in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. Bottom edge untrimmed. Decorative endpapers. A very good copy indeed, the binding square and firm. The contents with a contemporary previous owner’s bookplate (“J. Hossack”) to the front pastedown and some scattered dots of light foxing to the edges of the text block are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout. The lightly browned dustwrapper with a little chipping to the ends of the spine panel and to tips of the joints is otherwise also very good.
