W. H. AUDEN FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

London : Faber & Faber, (1933). First edition : [one of 1,200 copies]. "We present to you this evening a picture of the decline of a class, of how its members dream of a new life, but secretly desire the old, for there is death inside them ...".
Demy 8vo. (38),[ii]pp. Original green boards, lettered on upper cover and spine in black; very lightly rubbed at foot; a few faint marks; endpapers a little tanned, but a very good copy of a fragile early Auden, in the original dust-jacket - a typographic design in black and red on bright green - very faintly rubbed and just slightly nicked, but very good indeed. Bloomfield & Mendelson A4.

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London : Faber & Faber, (1935). First edition: [one of 2,000 copies].
Demy 8vo. 180pp. Original red cloth, lettered down spine in blue; a touch dulled; tiny split to lower hinge; some spotting of endpapers and edges, but a good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson A9a.

£25

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London : Faber & Faber, (1936). First edition: [one of 2,350 copies]. An early collection of thirty-one poems. Later published in the USA under Auden's preferred title of "On this Island".
Demy 8vo. 68pp. Original light grey cloth, lettered down spine in gilt; just a touch dulled; mild spotting of endpapers; inscription partially cleaned from half-title; a single neat annotation; but a nice copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson A13a.

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New York : Random House, (1940). First edition : [one of just 1,500 copies]. One of the finest and most celebrated collections of poetry of the twentieth century, including the first appearance in book form of "Lay your sleeping head, my love ...", "Musée des Beaux Arts", "Spain 1937", "In Memory of W.B.Yeats", "September 1, 1939", "Funeral Blues", etc. "Certainly his best collection of poems ... Auden was for many of us the last poet we learnt by heart" (Cyril Connolly).
Demy 8vo. [x],114,[iv]pp. Original terrcaotta cloth, blocked on upper cover and lettered down spine in gilt; a touch dulled; mild tanning to the endpapers; very faint browning to edges, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket - a design in black and tan on cream - lightly worn, a little tanned and very slightly soiled, with a tiny splash at foot of spine and two short tears at foot of upper panel. Bloomfield & Mendelson A22a. Connolly (Modern Movement) 90.

£500

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London : Faber & Faber, (1940). First British edition : [one of 2,000 copies]. One of the finest and most celebrated collections of poetry of the twentieth century, including the first appearance in book form of "Lay your sleeping head, my love ...", "Musée des Beaux Arts", "Spain 1937", "In Memory of W. B. Yeats", "September 1, 1939", "Funeral Blues", etc. "Certainly his best collection of poems ... Auden was for many of us the last poet we learnt by heart" (Cyril Connolly).
Demy 8vo. (126),[ii]pp. Original red cloth, lettered down spine in gilt; just a hint of sunning, a few faint spots to endpapers, but a very good, clean and sound copy. Bloomfield & Mendelson A22b. Connolly (Modern Movement) 90.

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New York : Harcourt, Brace & Co., (1948). First edition. Essays on the art and process of poetic creation, based on the original working manuscripts in the collection - by Rudolf Arnheim, W.H.Auden, Karl Shapiro and Donald A. Stauffer. Introduction by Charles D. Abbott.
Post 8vo. (x),186pp. Original maroon cloth, blocked in black and lettered across spine in gilt; a few minor signs of age and use, but a very good copy in the original dust-jacket - a design in white, black, maroon and grey - a little nicked and chipped. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson B35.

£15

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London : Faber & Faber, (1954). First edition. A poem in the New Series of the Ariel Poems.
Demy 8vo. [8]pp. Title-page, colour lithograph, and tailpiece by Edward Bawden. Original self-wrappers, printed black on pale yellow; a fine copy in the original pink envelope - also near fine. A duplicate from the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson A34.

£25

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[Oxford : Oxford University Press], 1958. First edition: [one of 1,500 copies]. The Latin and English texts of Auden's June 1958 formal oration as Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
Demy 8vo. (24)pp. Original white stapled self-wraps, printed in black; staples just slightly rusted, but a very good copy. Together with a photocopy of the similar 1956 publication (G25). From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson G26.

£50

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[Oxford : Oxford University Press], 1960. First edition: [one of 1,500 copies]. The Latin and English texts of Auden's June 1960 formal oration as Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
Demy 8vo. (16)pp. Original white stapled self-wraps, printed in black; staples a little rusted, but otherwise a very good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson G27.

£40

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New York : Steuben Glass, (1963). First edition. An exhibition was held in 1963 marrying together thirty-one new poems with interpretations of them in crystal by the leading artists and designers in glass of the period. The present work forms a record of the exhibition and the first publication of the poems. The poets include Conrad Aiken, W.H.Auden, Jean Garrigue, Donald Hall, Robinson Jeffers, Denise Levertov, Marianne Moore, Kenneth Rexroth, Theodore Roethke, Delmore Schwartz, Karl Shapiro, W.D.Snodgrass, Mark van Doren, Richard Wilbur, William Carlos Williams, etc. The artists include Lloyd Atkins, Clare Leighton, Donald Pollard, George Thompson, Don Wier, etc.
Post 4to. Plates. Original cloth; the slightest hint of a bruise at foot of spine, but a near fine copy in the original glassine jacket, rather battered and slightly chipped. Loosely inserted is the explanatory leaflet for the exhibition. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson B82.

£25

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Darmstadt : J.G.Bläschke Verlag, (1964). First edition: [one of 1,500 copies] - the secondary binding in pink (rather than grey) wraps. Two Auden poems. A parallel English/German text edition, with the German translations by Dieter Leisegang.
Demy 8vo. [24]pp. Frontispiece. Original light pink wraps, printed on upper wrap in black; just a touch sunned, but a very good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson A48.

£25

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Darmstadt : J.G.Bläschke Verlag, (1965). First edition: [one of 1,500 copies]. Two Auden poems - including one in memory of Louis MacNeice. A parallel English/German text edition, with the German translations by Dieter Leisegang.
Demy 8vo. [24]pp. Frontispiece. Original pale yellow stiffened wraps, printed on upper wrap in black; a few very faint marks, but a very good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson A50.

£30

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London : Oxford University Press, (1966). First edition. The sheet music for Walton's "Anthem for the Feast of any Apostle", first performed at Oxford in 1965, together with Auden's words.
Royal 8vo. [ii],30pp. Original brown and pale yellow stapled wraps; a very good copy. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson B97.

£40

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Salzburg : Festungsverlag Salzburg, (1968). First edition: [one of 2,000 copies]. Auden's Words and Notes in German, English and French.
Foolscap 4to. [ii],(58)pp. Original white wraps, printed in tan and grey; very good in dust-jacket. A duplicate from the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer. Bloomfield & Mendelson A60.

£35

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New York : Tetra Music Corporation, (1972). First edition. A poem by Auden, with music by Pablo Casals.
Crown 4to. (16)pp - wraps included in pagination. Original white stapled wraps, printed in pale blue; near fine. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer.

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New Haven : Jonathan Edwards College Press, 1974. First separate edition: limited to 100 numbered copies. Auden's 1972 poem for E.R.Dodds - "Do squamous and squiggling fish ...", here handsomely printed in broadside form in honour of the poet's sixty-seventh birthday.
Single ivory Strathmore Artlaid sheet, printed in black and silver-grey. 51 x 33cm. Single manuscript correction. Very mild creasing from having been rolled too long and too tight, but otherwise in very good state. A duplicate from the collection of the late B.C.Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer.

£75

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London : Faber Music / Faber & Faber, (1976). First edition. The 1941 Auden libretto to the Benjamin Britten operetta.
Crown 8vo. [iv],(40)pp. Original pale green stapled wraps, printed on upper wrap in black and blue; very mildly creased in production, but a very good copy indeed. A duplicate from the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer.

£20

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London : English Music Theatre Company, [1976]. First edition. The programme for the 1976 first European production of the Britten/Auden operetta - including the text of Auden's 1941 New York Times essay "Most myths are poetical history ...".
Demy 8vo. [12]pp. Original white wraps, printed in red and blue; very good.

£10

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London : Faber & Faber, (1977). First edition. The poems and writings that established Auden's reputation, together with some previously unpublished or uncollected material. Edited by Edward Mendelson. From the collection of the late B. C. Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer.
Medium 8vo. (xxvi),(470)pp. Portrait frontispiece. Original black cloth, blocked in red and ruled and lettered in gilt on spine; very good in dust-jacket.

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Oxford : Sycamore Press, (1977). First edition. A previously unpublished dark and cautionary ballad from the nineteen-thirties. Loosely inserted is an autograph post-card from the publisher, John Fuller, signed "John F.", to the late B.C.Bloomfield (Auden's bibliographer) concerning a 1923 Auden notebook, etc.
Post 8vo. Single white sheet, printed in blue and black, folding to form three leaves; fine.

£40

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London : Faber & Faber, (1988). First hardback edition. First published in wraps in 1976, but here with Auden's 1941 New York Times article and a long essay by Donald Mitchell, including excerpts from the original correspondence, etc.
Post 8vo. viii,150,[ii]pp. Portrait frontispiece. Original pale grey boards, ruled and lettered on spine in red; very good indeed in the original black, grey and white dust-jacket, with an illustration in red, green on upper panel. From the collection of the late Barry Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer.

£20

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Princeton : Princeton University Press, (1994). First edition. A collection of over 200 early poems, most previously unpublished, with full biographical and critical notes. Edited by Katherine Bucknell.
Medium 8vo. lxxii,(264)pp. Original grey cloth, blocked in purple and ruled and lettered in gilt across spine; two corners just lightly bruised, but a very good copy in the original purple and black and white dust-jacket - similarly lightly bruised. From the collection of the late B. C. Bloomfield, Auden's bibliographer, and with a related press-cutting loosely inserted.

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