lamdha books -
Catalogue of classic poetical works

Click on the small images at right to see a larger picture

214679 Baudelaire, Charles (Christopher Isherwood, trans.; Introduction by T.S. Eliot) Intimate Journals Black Spring Press, London, 1989. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 70pp. Minor wear; tiny stain to the rear endpapers and last page; mildly toned text block edges. Dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $25

75553 Blake, William (G.E. Bentley, ed) William Blake's Writings - 2 Volumes Vol. I: Engraved and Etched Writings; Vol. II: Writings in Conventional Typography and in Manuscript Oxford University Press, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK, 2001. Two volumes, octavo; hardcovers; 1820pp. [745pp. + 1075pp.], many monochrome illustrations and maps. Dustwrappers. Remainder. New. Click here to order $120

88192 Bloom, Harold (ed.) Till I End My Song A Gathering of Last Poems HarperCollins, New York NY, 2010. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 377pp. Mild wear. Light rubbing and edgewear to the dustwrapper. Near fine. Final works of one hundred poets including John Keats, T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, D.H. Lawrence, W.H. Auden, John Milton, Herman Melville, Emily Bronte and others. Click here to order $25

216026 Blyth, R.H. Japanese Life and Character in Senryu Hokuseido Press, Tokyo, 1960. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; beige cloth boards with black spine titling and small blind-stamped insignia on rear board; 630pp., colour frontispiece with tissue-guard and 17 colour and b&w plates all with tissue-guards, decorated endpapers, in plain cardboard mailer with spine and upper board titles and publisher's bird insignia on lower board. Minor wear; mild toning and spotting to text block, faint offsetting to endpapers. Illustrated beige dustwrapper mildly sunned along the spine panel; light wear to edges with slight scraping at corners and spine panel extremities; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film with white paper backing. Very good to near fine. Tightly fitting mailer. Click here to order $175

98828 Bridges, Robert The Testament of Beauty A Poem in Four Books Oxford at the Clarendon Press, London, 1930. First edition: octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in vellum with marbled boards and gilt spine titling; 175pp., on laid paper, all opened, with a monochrome portrait frontispiece (with tissue guard). Moderate wear; boards rubbed and lightly sunned with bumped corners; toned text block edges; offset to the endpapers; a few dog-eared pages. No dustwrapper. Very good. Click here to order $75

202045 Chatterton, Thomas (W.W. Skeat, ed.) The Poetical Works of Thomas Chatterton - Two Volumes The Aldine Edition of British Poets George Bell & Sons Ltd., London, 1875. Reprint: two volumes, octavo; hardcover with gilt spine titles and gilt upper board rules and decorations; 725 pp. [379pp. + 346pp.]. Ex-library: moderate wear; covers rubbed and edgeworn; spine extremities softened; remnants of old paper library labels to the spines; library cancellation stamps and inscriptions throughout; text block edges tones and top edges dusted. No dustwrappers. Very good withal. The complete poetry of the precocious English poet and forger of mediaeval verse who committed suicide at the age of 17. The controversy which raged round the Rowley poems (the mediaeval pastiche works by Chatterton) is discussed in Andrew Kippis's "Biographia Britannica", where there is a detailed account by George Gregory of Chatterton's life. This was reprinted in the 1803 edition of Chatterton's Works by Robert Southey and Joseph Cottle, published for the benefit of the poet's sister. The neglected condition of the study of earlier English in the 18th century alone accounts for the temporary success of Chatterton's mystification. It has long been agreed that Chatterton was solely responsible for the Rowley poems; the language and style were analysed in confirmation of this view by W. W. Skeat in an introductory essay prefaced in this work. Click here to order $200

204630 Cowper, William (William Benham, ed.) The Poetical Works of William Cowper - The Globe edition with Notes and Biographical Introduction Macmillan and Co. Ltd., London, 1908. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles, blind rules to the boards and a gilt upper board decoration; 536pp (+ 4pp. of adverts), untrimmed. Moderate wear; somewhat shaken; spine heel softened; text block edges spotted; offset to the endpapers. Dustwrapper rubbed and edgeworn; spine panel somewhat sunned; a large chip from the spine panel heel; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $30

41617 Donne, John (Introduction by Kingsley Hart) Poems of Love - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1992. Reprint: octavo; hardcover , full cloth with silver-gilt sine titles and board decorations; 208pp., numbered in red ink, top edges dyed red, with a monochrome portrait frontispiece. Minor wear; boards lightly rubbed; slight dusting to the text block top edge; previous owner's ink inscription to the flyleaf. Very good in like slipcase. Click here to order $25

7890 Donne, John (Scott Rivers, ed.) No Man is an Island - Folio Society edition A Selection from the Prose The Folio Society, London, 1997. Reprint. Octavo; hardcover; 198pp., with a colour frontispiece and many illustrations. Near fine in a like slipcase. Click here to order $27

59471 Grossman, Edith (ed. & trans.) The Golden Age Poems of the Spanish Renaissance; Introduction by Billy Collins W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., New York NY, 2006. Octavo; hardcover; 201pp., bilingual text (Spanish and English), with many monochrome illustrations. Dustwrapper. Remainder. New. Click here to order $20

209016 Kipling, Rudyard (Introduction by Andrew Lycett, ed.; George Tute, illus.) Rudyard Kipling - Folio Society edition Selected Poems The Folio Society, London, 2005. Reprint: quarto; hardcover, quarter-bound in leather with decorated cloth and gilt spine titles; 405pp., top edges dyed brown, with a monochrome engraved title page and many illustrations likewise. Minor wear. Fine in a lightly sunned slipcase. Click here to order $50

92537 Kipling, Rudyard (W. Heath Robinson, illus.) A Song of the English Hodder and Stoughton, London, nd. (c.1910). Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titles and decorations; unpaginated (126pp.), with a tipped-in full-colour frontispiece, with a captioned tissue guard, and 29 plates likewise, along with many monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; boards rubbed and slightly fanned with some mild insect damage to the board edges; spine sunned; text block edges toned; mild scattered foxing throughout, mainly to the preliminaries; retailer's bookplate to the front pastedown. No dustwrapper. Very good. Click here to order $250

204750 Lowell, James Russell Poems Henry Frowde at the Oxford University Press, Melbourne Vic., 1912. Octavo; hardcover, blind-ruled boards with gilt spine and upper board titles; 631pp., top edges gilt and mostly opened, with a monochrome portrait frontispiece. Moderate wear; shaken; spine extremities softened; top joint mildly split; text block edges spotted; mild foxing to the preliminaries; previous owners' ink inscriptions to the first blank page; top of the first blank page clipped away. Dustwrapper rubbed and worn; chipping to the spine panel head and flap-turns with associated creasing; a large chip from the spine panel foot with some loss of text; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $35

41128 Matheson, William (ed.) The Blind Harper (An Clarsair Dall) The Songs of Roderick Morison and His Music The Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, Edinburgh Scotland UK, 1970. Octavo; hardcover; 265pp., top edges dyed red. Minimal wear. Dustwrapper with small stain to lower spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. The sole known example in Gaelic Scotland of the figure of the Minstrel. Click here to order $80

38370 Michelangelo (Introduction by Michael Ayrton; Elizabeth Jennings, trans.) The Sonnets of Michelangelo - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1961. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in vellum with blue silk boards and gilt spine titling; 112pp., top edges dyed light blue, with a monochrome frontispiece and 15 plates likewise. Minor wear; board fore-edge slightly faded and a few tiny scrapes to the spine; mild foxing to the endpapers; top text block edge faded towards head of spine. Very good in a mildly scraped slipcase. Click here to order $20

216538 Milton, John (ed. Alastair Fowler; intro. Michael Prodger and mezzotints by John Martin) Paradise Lost: Folio Society edition - two volumes in slipcase Paradise Lost & Commentary Folio Society, London, 2015. Two folio hardcover volumes in slipcase; quarter bound in red and blue cloth boards with black spine panel with gilt titling and upper board black titles on side edges, red and blue endpapers; 311 + 335pp., with b&w plates in Volume I, top edges gilt. Illustrated coloured slipcase with black top and base. Minimal wear only; fine in like slipcase. Click here to order $500

92360 Morgenstern, Christian (W.D. Snodgrass & Lore Segal, trans.; Paul Klee, illus.) Gallows Songs University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor MI, 1967. Quarto; hardcover, with black and white titling on spine labels; 124pp., top edges dyed blue gray, with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; spotting to text block edges; previous owner's ink inscription. Dustwrapper with scraping at spine panel extremities, corners and front fore-edges; a few tiny chips; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $32

41129 O Baoill, Colm (ed.) Bardachd Shilis Na Cearpaich Poems and Songs by Sileas MacDonald The Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, Edinburgh Scotland UK, 1972. Octavo; hardcover; 271pp. Minimal wear; faint dustiness to upper text block edge. Near fine in like dustwrapper (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Twenty three poems. The poet's use of the long tradition of panegyric verse produced a group of laments considered amongst the highest achievements of Scottish Gaelic verse. Click here to order $80

92302 Oliver, John W., & J.C. Smith (eds.) A Scots Anthology Poems in Scots, Thirteenth to Twentieth Century Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh Scotland UK, 1949. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titles on a navy-blue label; 518pp., with a decorated title page. Moderate wear; text block edges lightly toned and spotted; mild offset to the endpapers. Dustwrapper is rubbed and lightly edgeworn; sunned along the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $25

8470 Philippi, Donald (ed. & trans.) (Kuzunishi Sosei, illus.) This Wine of Peace, This Wine of Laughter A Complete Anthology of Japan's Earliest Songs Mushinsha Grossman, New York NY, 1968. Royal octavo; hardcover; 236pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; a few faint spots on the text block edges. Slightly worn dustwrapper; a tiny tear to the top edge of lower panel. Very good. Poetry antedating influences from the Chinese mainland. Notes and commentary. Click here to order $30

98848 Shelley, Percy Bysshe (Introduction by Neville Rogers, ed.) The Esdaile Poems Early Minor Poems from the "Esdaile Notebook" Oxford at the Clarendon Press, London, 1966. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 136pp., with a monochrome frontispiece. Mild wear; some mild softening of the spine extremities. Price-clipped dustwrapper lightly rubbed; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $25

201738 Southey, Robert, & Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Introduction by Robert Gittings) Omniana Or, Horae Otiosiores Centaur Press Ltd., Fontwell Sussex UK, 1969. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 360pp., top edges dyed navy blue. Mild wear; boards lightly fanned; text block edges toned; offset to the endpapers; previous owner's name in ink to the flyleaf. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $25

98947 Wordsworth, William (Edward Dowden, ed.) The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Seven volumes The Aldine edition of the British Poets George Bell & Sons, London, 1892. Seven volumes: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 2,770pp. [408pp. + 344pp. + 476pp. + 387pp. + 366pp. + 387pp. + 402pp.], mostly opened, a monochrome portrait frontispiece (plus tissue guard) and a folding facsimile plate of the author's handwriting. Mild wear; mild rubbing to the boards of Vol. IV and one or two marks on those of Vol. I; text block edges toned; offsetting to the endpapers and a few small marks and stains to the endpapers of Vols.VI & VII; previous owner's bookplates to the front pastedowns of all seven volumes. No dustwrappers as issued. Very good. Click here to order $250