DOUGLAS, Keith; John WALLER and G. S. FRASER (editors). Collected Poems. London: Editions Poetry London. 1951.
8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper; pp. [xxii], 151, [1], untrimmed, with frontispiece photographic portrait of the author and five further plates; wrapper very lightly soiled, mild wear to extremities, else a near fine copy; bookplate of Montague Faithfull to front pastedown and his ownership signature dated “9.10 ‘51” in pencil to front free endpaper; publisher’s compliments slip (with typed “and apologies” added) loosely inserted.
An uncommonly bright copy of the first printing of the first collected edition of Douglas’s poems.
In June 1944, Keith Douglas was killed at Normandy, aged twenty-four. He had, by this time, already completed a body of work that has earned him the reputation of the most accomplished English poet of the Second World War. “He is the only poet”, wrote Olivia Manning in October 1944, “who has written poems comparable with the works of the better poets of the last war and likely to be read as war poems when the war is over". In the introduction to his 1965 selection of the poems for Faber, Ted Hughes wrote of Douglas that “he has invented a style that seems able to deal poetically with whatever it comes up against. It is not an exalted verbal activity to be attained for short periods, through abstinence, or a submerged dream treasure to be fished up when the everyday brain is half-drugged. It is a language for the whole mind, at its most wakeful, and in all situations.”
The Collected Poems issued by Poetry London in 1951 offered the first opportunity for readers to experience the full extent of Douglas’ achievement. It is rarely seen in such bright, clean condition.
SKU: 2124098