Bonhams Knightsbridge is set to auction nearly twenty lots of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes materials on 24 June 2021 as part of their Fine Books, Manuscripts, and Photographs sale, some of which is currently the property of Frieda Hughes. I had a strange feeling back in the Big 2018 auction, that there would be more. This material is a goldmine of treasures for the rare book market.
The Hawk in the Rain, first American edition, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS PARENTS, inscribed "To Mom & Dad/Number one on a long shelf." on the title-page, half-title, contents working loose, some spotting and foxing, publisher's cloth, dampstains on sides, yellow dust-jacket (price-clipped, upper cover and spine soiled with small losses at corners) [Sagar/Tabor A1b], 8vo, New York, Harper & Brothers, [1957] Footnotes THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF TED HUGHES' FIRST BOOK, INSCRIBED TO HIS PARENTS. The American edition was published in a print run of 750 copies, five days after the English edition had appeared. The Hawk in the Rain had won the First Publication Award in a competition conducted by the Poetry Centre of the Young Men's and Young Women's Association of New York, and judged by the poets Stephen Spender, W.H. Auden, and Marianne Moore. The book was very well received, with W.S. Merwin writing in the New York Times (6 October) that its publication allowed him to "acclaim an exciting new writer".
Lot 131: A Winter Ship, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF APPROXIMATELY 60 COPIES, Edinburgh, Tragara Press, 1960
A Winter Ship, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF APPROXIMATELY 60 COPIES, title within an ornamental border, stitched in original stiff card with marbled wrappers, title printed in black on label pasted on upper cover [Tabor A1], 8vo, Edinburgh, Tragara Press, 1960 Footnotes THE FIRST EDITION OF SYLVIA PLATH'S FIRST SEPARATELY PRINTED POEM. Alan Anderson, the owner of the Tragara Press, has stated that approximately 60 copies were printed. Plath was extremely pleased with the result, writing to Anderson on 23 July 1960 "The pamphlets are absolutely beautiful. Ted and I are delighted with them, and especially with the handsome way you make up your covered booklets" (The Letters, Vol.II, edited by Steinberg and Kukil, 2018).
The Bell Jar by Victoria Lucas, FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY TED HUGHES on the front free endpaper, some light spotting, mostly to fore-edge, publisher's black cloth, gilt lettered on spine, pictorial dust-jacket (light soiling, slightly worn at extremities) [Tabor A4a.1], 8vo, Heinemann, [1963] Footnotes A FINE ASSOCIATION COPY, SIGNED BY TED HUGHES, OF THE FIRST EDITION OF SYLVIA PLATH'S ONLY NOVEL. According to the publishers, only "a token quantity" of the book was printed (Tabor, Sylvia Plath. An Analytical Bibliography, 1987).
The Bell Jar by Victoria Lucas, FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY TED HUGHES on the front free endpaper, some light spotting, mostly to fore-edge, publisher's black cloth, gilt lettered on spine, pictorial dust-jacket (light soiling, slightly creased and frayed at corners and extremities of spine) [Tabor A4a.1], 8vo, Heinemann, [1963] Footnotes A FINE ASSOCIATION COPY, SIGNED BY TED HUGHES, OF THE FIRST EDITION OF SYLVIA PLATH'S ONLY NOVEL. According to the publishers, only "a token quantity" of the book was printed (Tabor, Sylvia Plath. An Analytical Bibliography, 1987).
The Bell Jar by Victoria Lucas, FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED WITH A POEM BY FRIEDA HUGHES relating to this copy of the book on front free endpaper, small piece neatly cut away from upper margin of front free endpaper with ink note by Frieda on the half-title [see footnote], pencil annotation ("Mrs. Prouthy") by Ted Hughes in the upper margin of p.5, publisher's black cloth, gilt lettered on spine, pictorial dust-jacket (upper fore-corner of upper cover and half of inner flap with blurb torn away, the inside cover illustrated by Frieda) [Tabor A4a.1], 8vo, Heinemann, [1963] Footnotes THE FIRST EDITION OF THE ONLY NOVEL BY SYLVIA PLATH, WITH AN EVOCATIVE POETIC INSCRIPTION BY HER DAUGHTER FRIEDA. It is annotated with a note and poem by the author's daughter Frieda Hughes, which suggests that this copy at one time had the autograph ownership inscription of Sylvia. On the half-title she has written "Somewhere there is a square of paper with my mother's signature on it that fits exactly here. FH.", and on the front free endpaper she has written out a copy of her poem "The Signature". It begins "One for you, one for me/The books are being/Divided between us...", with the second stanza reading "Each book is opened, and there/She has written her name. A mother/For you, a mother for me/And suddenly, a small square/Cut from the page corner where/Her ink had dried". The poem was published in Hughes' The Stonepicker (Bloodaxe, 2001). Ted Hughes has written "Mrs Prouthy" at the head of one page, presumably a reference to Olive Prouty, the woman who sponsored Plath at Smith College, and is thought to have been the person on whom the character of Philomena Guinea is based in The Bell Jar.
Ariel, FIRST EDITION, publisher's cloth, dust-jacket designed by Berthold Wolpe, VERY FINE COPY [Tabor A5a], Faber and Faber, 1965; idem, FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, introduction by Robert Lowell, publisher's cloth, dust-jacket (light toning to spine, very small snick to fore-edge of upper cover) [Tabor A5b], New York, Harper & Row, [1966]; and 3 others, including fine copies of the first editions of Winter Trees and Crossing the Water (5) Footnotes "In these poems, written in the last months of her life and often rushed out at a rate of two or three a day, Sylvia Plath becomes herself, becomes something imaginary, newly, wildly and subtly created..." (Robert Lowell, introduction to the American edition).
Pursuit. With an Etching & Drawings by Leonard Baskin, NUMBER 18 OF 100 COPIES, etched plate by Baskin signed and numbered, original green morocco by Zaehnsdorf, t.e.g., slipcase [Tabor A17], 1973; Lyonnesse. Poems, ONE OF 90 COPIES BOUND IN FULL CALF, from an overall edition of 400 copies, this copy number 50, full calf, gilt, t.e.g., slipcase [Tabor A13], 1971; Crystal Gazer and Other Poems, ONE OF 80 COPIES BOUND IN FULL LEATHER from an overall edition of 400, this copy number 23), one plate after Plath, full blue morocco gilt by Zaehnsdorf, spine age soiled, with light abrasions at lower joint, slipcase (non-matching, worn at spine) [Tabor A9], 1917; Dialogue Over the Ouija Board, NUMBER 90 OF 140 COPIES, frontispiece by Leonard Baskin, publisher's limp vellum, slipcase [Tabor A25], 1981, 4to and 8vo, The Rainbow Press (4) Footnotes The four titles by Sylvia Plath published by The Rainbow Press.
Smith Review. Spring 53, including 3 poems ("Mad Girl's Love Song" etc.) by Plath, light dampstain to upper cover [Tabor C33], Smith Review, 1952--Mademoiselle. College Issue, including Plath's prize-winning story "Sunday at the Mintons" and photo of her [Tabor C26], New York, August 1952; Mademoiselle, includes an illustrated article about Sylvia and Ted, New York, January 1959, ANNOTATED BY PLATH'S MOTHER AURELIA ON THE UPPER COVERS, publisher's pictorial wrappers, 4to; and 10 copies of American Poetry Now, edited by Sylvia Plath, 1961 (13) Footnotes Copies of Mademoiselle and Smith Review with early appearances of Sylvia Plath in print, each annotated on the cover by her mother Aurelia.
Lot 138: Uncollected Poems, 9 copies, THESE COPIES SPECIALLY INSCRIBED AND LETTERED BY TED HUGHES; and others (14)
Uncollected Poems, 9 copies, FIRST EDITION, LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, THESE COPIES SPECIALLY INSCRIBED AND LETTERED BY TED HUGHES ("Ted Hughes, Feb. 1966. D [or other letter] of 13 copies) inside upper cover, facsimile of the manuscript of "Half-Moon" (i.e. "Thalidomide") printed on pink paper, publisher's stiff wrappers, dust-jacket printed with a drawing of "Wuthering Heights" by Plath on the upper cover, a couple with a few light spots [cf. Tabor A6], 8vo, Turret Books, 1965 [but 1966]--HUGHES (TED) Animal Poems, 4 copies, FIRST EDITION, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, 2 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR "Ted Hughes, 25th Sept. 1971" on the front free endpaper, ink smudge on one page of one of the signed copies, contents loose in original printed salmon-pink textured wrappers [Sagar/Tabor A13], small 4to, [Crediton, Richard Gilbertson, 1967]; and a copy of Plath's The Magic Mirror, Embers Handpress, 1989, THIS COPY SIGNED BY TED HUGHES (14) Footnotes Nine copies from thirteen special "lettered" copies (from "D" to ""L") signed by Ted Hughes of Plath's Uncollected Poem. There is no mention of these copies in Stephen Tabor's Plath bibliography. According to the blurb these twelve poems in the collection "represent an intermediate stage in Sylvia Plath's development as a poet... [a] connecting link between the poems to be found in the The Colossus... and those in her posthumous volume, Ariel". Hughes's Animal Poems were published in a an edition of 100 copies, but the Sagar/Tabor bibliography suggests that some of the proposed edition were never printed.
The Bell Jar, ink notes inside lower cover [Tabor A4.a3], Faber, [1966]; idem, first American edition, numerous passages marked in margin, a few underlined, notes on lower endpapers [Tabor A4b], Harper & Row, [1971]; The Colossus, several pages cut out (but present), with corrections to the text, lower cover stained and scuffed, Faber, [1972]; Ariel, first American edition, annotated with numerals on index leaf, dust-jacket very soiled [Tabor A5b], [1966]; Crossing the Water, first American edition, annotated with numerals on index leaf, dust-jacket soiled [Tabor A11b], [1971], New York, Harper & Row--BUNDTZEN (LYNDA K.) Plath's Incarnations. Woman and the Creative Process, several passages marked in pencil or green pen in margins, with a few comments in the margins ("strange affirmation, savage & desperate...". "Did she!", "No", etc.), Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1983, ALL ANNOTATED BY OLWYN HUGHES, unless otherwise mentioned publisher's cloth, dust-jackets, 8vo; and approximately 70 others by, or about or relating to Plath, a few annotations by Olwyn Hughes in three, including the biographies by Anne Stevenson and Linda Wagner-Martin (c.76) Footnotes A collection of works by, or references about Sylvia Plath, several of which have been annotated by her sister-in-law Olwyn Hughes. The two women only met only six occasions, with the last of these resulting in an argument, for which "it was in no small measure as self-justification and atonement that she [Olwyn] spent the next 50 years reading Plath, talking about her, loathing the feminists who made a martyr of her, and correcting what she perceived as biographical misreadings of her brother's ill-starred first marriage" (Jonathan Bate, Guardian obituary, 5 January 2016).
A Winter Ship, FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK, ONE OF APPROXIMATELY 60 COPIES, title within an ornamental border, stitched in original stiff card with marbled wrappers, title printed in black on label pasted on upper cover [Tabor A1], Edinburgh, Tragara Press, 1960; Three Women. A Monologue for Three Voices, second (first published) edition, NUMBER 167 OF 180 COPIES, frontispiece by Stanislaw Gliwa, publisher's pictorial cloth gilt [Tabor A3b.1], 1968; Ariel, publisher's cloth, dust-jacket (very small tear at lower margin of upper cover, but otherwise very good) [Tabor A5a], [1965]; Uncollected Poems, [LIMITED TO 150 COPIES], THIS COPY "M OF 13 COPIES" SIGNED BY TED HUGHES inside upper cover, a few light spots to covers [Tabor A6, not mentioning this "lettered" limited variant], Turret Books, 1965 [but 1966]; Wreath for a Bridal, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, this number 13 [Tabor A7], Frensham, Sceptre Press, 1970; Crystal Gazer and Other Poems, NUMBER 105 OF 400 COPIES, publisher's quarter cloth, slipcase [Tabor 9], Rainbow Press, 1971; Fiesta Melons, LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, this numbered "8/30", publisher's cloth, dust-jacket [Tabor A10], Exeter, Rougemont Press, 1971; Crossing the Water, publisher's cloth, dust-jacket [Tabor A11], Faber, 1971; Lyonnesse. Poems, ONE OF 90 COPIES BOUND IN FULL CALF, from an overall edition of 300, this copy number 35, publisher's calf gilt, slipcase [Tabor A13], Rainbow Press, 1971; Million Dollar Month, NUMBER 49 OF 150 COPIES, [Tabor A14], Frensham, Sceptre Press, [1971]; Winter Trees, publisher's cloth, dust-jacket [Tabor A15], Faber, 1971; Child, LIMITED TO 325 COPIES, this copy not numbered [Tabor A16], Exeter, Rougemont Press, [1971]; Pursuit, NUMBER 22 OF 100 COPIES, WITH ORIGINAL ETCHING SIGNED BY LEONARD BASKIN, 4 full-page illustrations by Baskin, full morocco by Zaehnsdorf, t.e.g., slipcase [Tabor A17], Rainbow Press, 1973; Two Poems, NUMBER 68 OF 75 "ESPECIAL" COPIES, from an overall edition of 300 [Tabor A22], Knotting, Martin Booth at Sceptre Press, 1980; Two Uncollected Poems, NUMBER 4 OF 450 COPIES, [Tabor A23], Anvil Press, 1980; A Day in June. An Uncollected Short Story, NUMBER 162 OF 160 COPIES, [Tabor A24], Ely, Embers Handpress, 1981; A Dialogue Over a Ouija Board, NUMBER 127 OF 140 COPIES, illustration by Leonard Baskin, publisher's limp vellum, slipcase [Tabor A25], Rainbow Press, 1981; The Green Rock, NUMBER 11 OF 160 COPIES [Tabor A28], Ely, Embers Handpress, 1982; The Magic Mirror, NUMBER 127 OF 226 COPIES, a few light spots, publisher's cloth-backed boards, dust-jacket, Rhiwagor, Embers Handpress, 1989, unless otherwise stated publisher's stiff wrappers (with additional dust-jacket where required), FIRST EDITIONS, FINE COPIES, 8vo and 4to; and 3 others relating to Plath (22)
A Winter Ship, FIRST EDITION, 22 COPIES OF THE APPROXIMATELY 60 PRINTED, title within an ornamental border, stitched in original stiff card with marbled wrappers, title printed in black on label pasted on upper cover [Tabor A1], 8vo, Edinburgh, Tragara Press, 1960 (22) Footnotes A COLLECTION OF TWENTY-TWO COPIES OF THE FIRST EDITION OF SYLVIA PLATH'S FIRST SEPARATELY PRINTED POEM. Alan Anderson, the owner of the Tragara Press, has stated that approximately 60 copies were printed. Plath was extremely pleased with the result, writing to Anderson on 23 July 1960 "The pamphlets are absolutely beautiful. Ted and I are delighted with them, and especially with the handsome way you make up your covered booklets" (The Letters, Vol.II, edited by Steinberg and Kukil, 2018). The poem was printed at the expense of Anderson, with the entire print run sent to Hughes and Plath who, writing to her mother (14 December 1960) mentioned she had been sending Christmas cards "and in many enclosed my poem about a 'Winter Ship'". The lot consists of approximately one third of all the copies printed, which have been retained by Sylvia Plath's family since publication.
Ariel, 20 copies, FIRST EDITIONS, publisher's cloth, dust-jacket designed by Berthold Wolpe, FINE COPIES (2 spines slightly faded and toned, short tear to extremity of 5 spines, short tear to upper cover of 3, but generally all bright) [Tabor A5a], 8vo, Faber and Faber, 1965; and 48 others by Plath, including first editions in good dust-jackets of "Crossing the Water", 1971 (13 copies, and 3 American firsts, Tabor A11a/b); "Winter Trees", 1971 (18 copies, and 8 American firsts, light blue smudge on lower covers off-set from upper covers of UK edition, spines slightly frayed to American editions, Tabor A15a/b), a first American edition of "Ariel", smudge on upper wrapper [Tabor A5b], 1966 (68) Footnotes A COLLECTION INCLUDING TWENTY COPIES OF THE FIRST EDITION OF ARIEL, all retained since publication by family of Ted Hughes and his sister Olwyn. "'Ariel' by Sylvia, is in a class apart. She truly became the most phenomenal genius just before she died. In English there is nothing quite so direct & naked & radiant - yet complicated & mysterious at the same time" (Ted Hughes, letter to János Csokits, 21 April 1967).
Dialogue Over a Ouija Board. A Verse Dialogue, 13 COPIES, LIMITED TO 140 COPIES, each numbered on the colophon, frontispiece by Leonard Baskin, printed in black and blue, title-page lettering by Sebastian Carter, publisher's limp vellum gilt, slipcase (some blue, some brown) covered with the same paper as the endpapers [Tabor A25], large 8vo, The Rainbow Press, 1981 (13) Footnotes The remaining stock of Plath's verse dialogue which Olwyn Hughes decided to print "as it is so odd and mannered and seemed to me made for the typeface used" (quoted in Stephen Tabor, Sylvia Plath. An Analytical Bibliography, 1987). Designed and printed by Sebastian Carter at the Rampart Lions Press it was hand-set in F. Warde's Arrighi-Vienza type, and typifies the care taken by the Hugheses in the high quality production of the books they published through The Rainbow Press.
Lot 144: The remaining stock of several Rainbow Press publications, from the collection of Ted and Olwyn Hughes (collection)
RAINBOW PRESS - HUGHES, PLATH, ETC. The remaining stock of several Rainbow Press publications, from the collection of Ted and Olwyn Hughes, including: PLATH (SYLVIA) Lyonnesse. Poems, 29 copies, LIMITED TO 400 COPIES, INCLUDING 6 COPIES OF THE SPECIAL LIMITATION OF 90 COPIES BOUND IN FULL CALF, of these one copy unnumbered, the others publisher's cloth, all but 8 in original slipcases [Tabor A13], 1971; Pursuit, NUMBER 100 OF 100 COPIES, lacks the etching by Baskin, illustrations by Baskin, publisher's full morocco, t.e.g., slipcase [Tabor A17], [1973]; Dialogue Over a Ouija Board, 2 copies, LIMITED TO 160 COPIES, these number 136 and 140, publisher's limp vellum gilt, slipcase [Tabor A25], 1981; Crystal Gazer and Other Poems, 25 copies, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES in quarter buckram, from an overall edition of 400, frontispiece after Sylvia Plath, publisher's quarter buckram over handmade Japanese boards, slipcase [Tabor A9], 1971--HUGHES (TED) Moortown Elegies, 2 copies, LIMITED TO 175 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, one plate by Leonard Baskin, publisher's limp vellum gilt, blocked with an illustration of a bull on upper cover, slipcase, 1978; GUNN (THOM) Mandrakes, 7 copies, LIMITED TO 150 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, illustrations by Leonard Baskin, publisher's vellum-backed cloth, slipcase, [1973]--FAINLIGHT (RUTH), TED HUGHES AND ALAN SILLITOE. Poems, 7 copies, LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHORS, except one out-of-series copy signed by Hughes only, publisher's green pictorial calf gilt, slipcase, [1971], 8vo and 4to, The Rainbow Press; and a collection of disbound proof sheets of Crystal Gazer, Remains of Elmet, Dialogue Over a Ouija Board, and miscellaneous other materials, including a loose stack of 50 copies of the print by Sylvia Print as the frontispiece to Crystal Gazer (collection) Footnotes The Rainbow Press was a small press established by Ted Hughes and his sister, Olwyn, in 1971 with the publication of Sylvia Plath's Crystal Gazer. Both siblings were very involved in the production throughout the process, from choosing of the texts, the choice of handmade papers, the printer (notably Sebastian Carter of the Rampant Lion Press), and binder.
The remaining stock of twelve works by Sylvia Plath previously retained by Ted Hughes, comprising: Three Women, 9 copies, second (first published) edition, LIMITED TO 180 COPIES, these numbered "167" to "175", introduction by Douglas Cleverdon, frontispiece by Stanislawa Gliwy, publisher's pictorial cloth gilt, original plastic dust-wrapper [Tabor A3b.1], Turret Books, 1968; Wreath for a Bridal, 7 copies, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, these numbered "14", "21" to "25", and one marked by Ted Hughes "[copy] D of 5 unumbered", all but the last mentioned in plain tissue dust-wrapper [Tabor A7], Frensham, Sceptre Press, [1970]; Fiesta Melons, 14 copies, LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, these all numbered as if limited to 30 copies (i.e. 4/30), illustrations by Sylvia Plath, publisher's cloth, dust-jackets (one with short tear to upper cover, light fading to a few) [Tabor A10], Exeter, Rougemont Press, 1971; Million Dollar Month, 8 copies, LIMITED TO 150 NUMBERED COPIES, [Tabor A14], Frensham, Sceptre Press, [1971]; Child, 26 copies, LIMITED TO 325 COPIES, some of these unnumbered, occasional uneven fading to dust-jackets [Tabor A16], Exeter, Rougemont Press, 1971; Two Poems, 48 copies (including 4 "especial" copies), LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, [Tabor A22, mentioning that "Ted and Olwyn Hughes took numbers 51-60 and 201-250"), Knotting, Sceptre Press, 1980; Two Uncollected Poems, 22 copies, LIMITED TO 450 COPIES, [Tabor A23], Anvil Press Poetry, 1980; A Day in June, 23 copies, LIMITED TO 160 COPIES, [Tabor A24], 1981; The Green Rock, 24 copies, LIMITED TO 160 COPIES, [Tabor A28], 1982; The Magic Mirror, 10 copies, LIMITED TO 226 COPIES, OF WHICH 2 SIGNED BY TED HUGHES (these from the 26 "lettered" copies "reserved by the Press"), publisher's cloth, dust-jackets (7 with some uneven discolouring or dusting), 1989, Ely [or Rhiwagor], Embers Handpress; To Eva Descending the Stair, 6 copies, SIGNED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR, colour lithographed illustration by Ralph Steadman, single folded sheet with dust-jacket (missing from 2 copies), Steam Press, [1974], unless otherwise mentioned publisher's stiff wrappers with dust-jackets if where printed, 8vo and 4to; and 14 copies of American Poetry Now... edited by Sylvia Plath, [1961] (c. 211)
Lot 146: Moortown Elegies, NUMBER 8 OF 175 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, 1971; and approximately 150 others mostly written by or about Ted Hughes, 7 signed, Rainbow Press, etc (c.150)
Moortown Elegies, NUMBER 8 OF 175 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, one full-page illustration by Leonard Baskin, prospectus loosely inserted, original vellum by Zaehensdorf, gilt-blocked illustration of a bull by Hughes on upper cover, slipcase, 1978; Ada and the Sacred Nine, NUMBER 8O OF 200 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR frontispiece by Leonard Baskin, publisher's blue calf, slipcase, 1978; T.S. Eliot: A Tribute, LIMITED TO 250 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, publisher's wrappers, Faber, 1987; Animal Poems, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES (this possibly a proof copy, not signed on colophon), SIGNED AND DATED BY THE AUTHOR ("Sept. 25 1971") on the front free endpaper, contents loose and unstitched in publisher's salmon pink wrappers, [Crediton, Richard Gilbertson, 1967]; Remains of Elmet, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED "For Orlando Johnson greetings from Ted Hughes, 10th Sept. 1979" on the half-title, photographs by Fay Goodwin, publisher's wrappers, some dampstaining, Faber, 1979; Henry Williamson. A Tribute by Ted Hughes, NUMBER 10 OF 200 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, frontispiece portrait, publisher's wrappers, 1979--FAAS (EKBERT) Ted Hughes: The Unaccommodated Universe. With Selected Critical Writings by Ted Hughes, ONE OF 294 COPIES SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, this copy number 108, publisher's cloth, Santa Barbara, Blacksparrow Press, 1980-FAINLIGHT (RUTH), TED HUGHES AND ALAN SILLITOE. Poems, NUMBER 269 OF 300 COPIES, SIGNED BY THE AUTHORS, publisher's pictorial green calf gilt, slipcase, 1971--PLATH (SYLVIA) Fiesta Melons, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, introduction by Ted Hughes, publisher's cloth, dust-jacket, Exeter, Rougement Press, 1971--Westminster Abbey. Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Works of Ted Hughes, OM, OBE 1930-1999. Thursday 13 May 1999, printed in black and green, publisher's wrappers, Printed by Barnard & Westwood, [1999], unless otherwise mentioned printed for the Rainbow Press, 8vo and 4to; and approximately 140 others mostly written by or about Ted Hughes (c.150)
Lot 147: Moortown Elegies, LIMITED TO 175 COPIES, SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY THE AUTHOR, Printed by Will Carter at the Rampant Lion Press, for The Rainbow Press, 1978; and 44 further copies of the same, ALL SIGNED BY HUGHES (45)
Moortown Elegies, LIMITED TO 175 COPIES, SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY THE AUTHOR, prospectus loosely inserted, one full-page illustration by Leonard Baskin, original vellum by Zaehnsdorf, gilt-blocked illustration of a bull by Ted Hughes on upper cover, slipcase [Sagar/Tabor 57a], small folio, Printed by Will Carter at the Rampant Lion Press, for The Rainbow Press, 1978; and 44 further copies of the same, ALL SIGNED BY HUGHES (45)
Footnotes
The remaining stock of Hughes' Moortown Elegies, comprising 45 of the 175 signed copies published by The Rainbow Press, the joint enterprise of Ted and his sister Olwyn. "Olwyn played the major role in the Rainbow Press publications. She chose the printer and binder for each edition and mostly chose the paper on which it was to be printed... Ted enjoyed being involved in the making of the books and had enormous creative force and energy. He watched over the Press productions and provided much of the material from his own writings" (Ann Skea, Ted Hughes and Small Press Publication, online).
Of Moortown Elegies John Carey wrote "It grips your heart, and your intestines, like a vice from the first page. [Hughes] makes language as physical as a bruise, and these poems beauty and tenderness blend in violence" (review in Sunday Times).
All links accessed 28 May 2021.