With an unpublished photograph of Dylan Thomas.
[THOMAS, Dylan]. McKENNA, Rollie. Portrait of Dylan. London: J.M. Dent, 1982.
4to. Original green cloth, lettering in gilt to spine and upper cover, with gilt device; dustwrapper; illustrated throughout with colour and b&w photos and photographic end papers; pp. 111, [i]; dustwrapper a little chipped, a few tears to upper edge and head of spine, up to 2cm long; creases to loose photographs, very good. Provenance: from the library of Dylan Thomas's daughter, Aeronwy, with a photocopied letter to that effect.
First UK edition, sold with two original photographs by Rollie Mckenna of the original New York production of Under Milk Wood, with the photographer's ink stamp to the reverse of each. The two photographs, clearly taken very close together, feature the entire cast of the performance: Roy Poole, Nancy Wickwire, Dion Allen, Dylan Thomas himself, Sada Thompson and Allen F. Collins. One of the photographs is printed in the book at pp. 76-77, the other is unpublished.
This was the world premiere of the play, held on 14th May 1953 at the Kaufmann Auditorium in New York, and Mckenna recounts in her book the excitement of the event. The American photographer knew Thomas well, and photographed him on numerous occasions. This memoir of her complicated friend is illustrated throughout with photographs of the poet, his wife Caitlin, his family and friends and the Welsh landscape that shaped his poetry.
#2097886