HUGHES, Ted. Gaudete. London: Faber and Faber. 1977.
8vo. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt and red to spine, illustrated dust jacket designed by Leonard Baskin with the printed price of £4.50 to front flap; pp. 200; jacket very slightly toned, some spotting to top edge of textblock; near fine.
First edition with a humorous inscription to Nick Grant: "For Nick / Country life in the / mid seventies / with love / from Ted / 1997".
"An Anglican clergyman is abducted by spirits into the other world…" prefaces Hughes in his opening "Argument". Hughes' narrative poem channels both the religious and the magical. Originally intended as a film, it follows a clergyman - Lumb - as he is abducted by spirits and forced to reinterpret his role as a minister as a changeling.
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