Eleven Poems by Seamus Heaney, First Edition (11 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. No Jacket. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION, THIRD PRINTING. Signed note "Seamus Heaney Manchester 1973" tipped in to the title verso. Unlike the first and second printings (not issues by general trade consent) which carry the sun symbol on their covers (the logo of the 1965 Belfast Festival), the third printing bears the herald with drum and trumpet device as used for the 1966 Festival. Brandes and Durkan noted a number of variations in copies of the third printing, including varying dimensions, paper types, and even printer's details on the lower wrapper, as well as differences in the sequence of poems, without assigning priority to any of these states. Octavo. Stapled pamphlet in green card covers which also serve as title. A near fine copy with just a hint of browning to extremities and a patch of light rubbing to upper wrapper over letter S in "Poems", housed in a green solander box titled in gilt to lid. [Brandes & Durkan A1c]. Signed by Author(s).

Paperback. First edition, second issue. This is an impressively clean copy of the first edition, second issue of the first book by Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, housed in a custom Solander case Heritage Bindery. Condition of Eleven Poems and the original festival programme approaches near fine. Eleven Poems is crisp and complete with no appreciable wear and no creasing. Both original binding staples are intact and free of corrosion. The wraps binding shows only slight toning and trivial soiling to the perimeter. The contents are immaculate. This second issue of the first edition is identical in content to the first issue, but printed on white wove paper with the 10-point sun symbol on the front cover redrawn and slightly larger than in the first issue, and printed in a dark purple more closely matching the original programme print, rather than the brighter purple of the first issue. This sun-symbol device was used as the logo of the 1965 Belfast Festival. In the third and final issue, this sun-symbol device was not present, replaced with the herald with drum and trumpet device of the 1966 Festival. While the exact printing date is unknown, it was definitively before 3 June 1966, as a second issue copy signed and dated by the author thus is known. It seems is worth noting that the sun-symbol device on the original Festival programme more closely resembles that of this second issue of Eleven Poems than it does that of the first issue.This copy of Eleven Poems is housed in a custom clamshell Solander case build by Heritage Bindery. The Solander features quarter black Morocco goatskin spine, rounded and featuring raised, gilt-decorated spine bands framed by gilt rules, and gilt-decorated compartments. The marbled paper-covered sides, separated from the Morocco spine by gilt-rule transitions, feature beveled edges. The interior is trimmed in black cloth and lined in purple paper. Condition of the Solander is near fine, with only trivial hints of shelf wear to the marbled paper-covered sides.Seamus Justin Heaney (1939-2013) was the first of nine children born to a farmer and raised in rural County Derry "in suspension between the archaic and the modern." At Queens University Belfast Heaney evolved into a poet. In 1965 Heaney was a member of a group of young Belfast poets known as "The Group" when his first book, Eleven Poems, was published as a staple-bound pamphlet by Queen's Festival Publications to coincide with their 1965 festival. "I was part of the Belfast Festival committee at that time. The man behind it was Michael Emmerson [who] had come to Queen's as an undergraduate from Stratford-upon-Avon and then had stayed on and developed the programmes until the thing grew to be a fully fledged arts festival. When I suggested a pamphlet series to Michael, it was a done deal in a minute and the booklets were brought out with very little fuss. The first three are collectors' items now of course: Derek Mahon's Twelve Poems, my Eleven and Michael's Ten. They look as if they were just xeroxed and stapled; but they were the start of something (Seamus Heaney, interview in Stepping Stones, O'Driscoll, pp.83-84) Eleven proved a lucky number; in 1966, Death of a Naturalist, the eleventh and final poem in Eleven Poems, became the title of Heaney's first conventionally published book. Death of a Naturalist brought critical acclaim, earning Heaney the Cholmondeley Award, the Eric Gregory Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. The next half century saw Heaney publish a dozen poetry collections, as well as prose, plays, and numerous translations. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past". Reference: Brandes & Durkan A1b.

First edition, first issue. 8vo., original printed wrappers. Belfast, Festival Publications, Queen's University of Belfast. [offered with:] LONGLEY (Michael). Ten Poems. First edition. 8vo., original printed wrappers. Belfast, Festival Publications, Queen's University of Belfast. [1965]. [and:] MAHON (Michael). Twelve Poems. First edition. 8vo., original printed wrappers. Belfast, Festival Publications, Queen's University of Belfast. [1965]. A pristine copy of the correct first issue of Heaney's scarce first book, from the library of Jon Stallworthy, in its original mailing envelope (with Stallworthy's endearing post-it note "These pamphlets are very valuable. JS 2/2/02") and with a covering letter from Mary Mills of the Festival Office, thanking him for his cheque for £1, and sending the "series to date", which consists of the Heaney, Michael Longley's Ten Poems and Derek Mahon's Twelve Poems. The Longley and Mahon are also included for context. The Longley has a just-discernible rust mark, otherwise they're both equally fine.  Stallworthy and Heaney, who initially met as students of Yeats, were to become close friends, with Stallworthy describing him as "prince of men and poets" [from his memoir by Peter France, published online by the British Academy]. .

First edition, first issue with the purple nine-pointed sun figure to the front panel. This copy belonged to Rosemary Goad (1921-1998), a director at Faber and Faber who would later become a close friend of the poet. Goad's name is written in pencil to the upper left corner of the front panel in what appears to be Heaney's hand. Original stapled wrappers lettered in black to front and rear panels. A very near fine copy, the binding strong, the pages flat, with no traces of spotting. The lightly toned wraps are a little darker near the spine fold. Housed in a bespoke quarter black morocco solander case. The rear panel explains that this pamphlet "is one in a series to be published monthly and to include [list of nine poets including, Heaney, Michael Longley, and Derek Mahon]", each volume priced "Two shillings and sixpence [.]; subscription for series one pound (including postage)". A lovely association copy of the poet's scarce first individual publication. Published in November 1965, 'Eleven Poems' preceded 'Death of a Naturalist' (1966), Heaney's first full collection for Faber and Faber by seven months. All except one of the poems ('Peter Street at Bankside') printed in the pamphlet would later appear in the larger volume, and the publisher's statement at the end of 'Eleven Poems' acknowledges Faber, with whom Heaney was already under contract, "for permission to print these poems from 'Death of a Naturalist'." Heaney was at the time on the committee of the Belfast Festival and "In 1965", he later recalled, "there was still a touch of the ad hoc and the improvisatory about proceedings, so when I suggested a pamphlet series to Michael [Emmerson, who ran the Festival], it was a done deal in a minute and the booklets were brought out with very little fuss. The first three [Mahon's, Heaney's and Longley's] are collectors' items now, of course [.]. They look as if they were just xeroxed and stapled; but they were the start of something." Heaney's contribution was warmly praised by John Carey in the New Statesman ("assured [.] masterly"). This copy of 'Eleven Poems' belonged to Rosemary Goad, who joined Faber and Faber in 1953 as a secretary, assisting the editor Charles Monteith (and initially sharing a room in the office with Valerie Fletcher, who would soon become Valerie Eliot). Goad became the first female Faber director in 1970, retiring in 1988. Seamus Heaney would become a friend, inscribing copies of each of his books to Goad and even writing a poem for her when she retired. This copy of Heaney's early pamphlet has the name 'Miss Goad' written in pencil to the upper corner of the front panel. The handwriting appears to be that of the author. Monteith had written to Heaney in June 1965 (five months before 'Eleven Poems' was issued) to accept 'Death of a Naturalist' for publication, so he was still a new face in London. (Dennis O'Driscoll, 'Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney' [London, 2008]; Toby Faber, 'Faber & Faber: The Untold Story of a Great Publishing House' [London 2019]; Brandes and Durkan A1a.) Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Pp, 15. Light browning to wrappers, more pronounced to outer margin of rear wrapper, contents pages in nice bright condition. The scarce first issue of Heaney's first book of poetry, published while he still a student in Queen's University, Belfast.

First edition, second 'issue' (with the ten-point sun symbol); single octavo quire; internally clean; publisher's stapled self wrappers printed in black & light purple. A very nice copy. First edition of Heaney's rare first published work, with the notice for his 'first book of poems, Death of a Naturalist' to be published in Spring 1966. There are three apparent 'issues' of Heaney's first publication, the first two are in white self wrappers, with the Festival Publications' roundel in light purple then, as here, dark purple. The third manifestation was issued in green wrappers with printing details on the lower wrapper in two distinct states. These are not issues; they are distinct printings. No less appealing and bibliographically important for that, but the persistent notion that the later issues are somehow part of the original printing is false. Rare thus in such condition. From the collection of J. Kenneth Jamison (1931-2016), Director of the the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Heaney's friend, who was instrumental in putting on the event that brought Heaney, Longley, and Hammond together on the stage to perform their poems and songs at venues across Ireland. The very first poem, 'Personal Helicon (For Michael Longley)' (whose work appeared in the same Festival Publications series) in its opening and closing lines ('As a child, they could not keep me from wells / and old pumps with buckets and windlasses. / I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky' and 'I rhyme / to see myself, to set the darkness echoing') prefigures the Nobel Prize acceptance speech that Heaney would make 30 years later, 'I credit [poetry] ultimately because [it] can make an order as true to the impact of external reality and as sensitive to the inner laws of the poet's being as the ripples that rippled in and rippled out across the water in that scullery bucket fifty years ago. An order where we can at last grow up to that which we stored up as we grew. An order which satisfies all that is appetitive in the intelligence and prehensile in the affections. I credit poetry, in other words, both for being itself and for being a help, for making possible a fluid and restorative relationship between the mind's centre and its circumference.' Brandes & Durkan A1b.

Soft cover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition/First Printing. Soft cover original. Fine. Original printed self wrappers, stapled as issued, with a shallow crease on the front flap. First printing with the nine-point sun symbol in purple on the front wrapper. Debut collection from the Poet, rarely found in this condition. Housed in a half morocco slipcase.

First edition of Heaney's rare debut publication, presentation copy to the Irish theatre director Mary O'Malley, inscribed by the poet on the front wrapper verso, "The first fruits - with gratitude and good wishes. Seamus." This is a first issue, with the nine-point sun symbol on the front wrapper. An important figure in Irish theatre, O'Malley (1918-2006) co-founded the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Heaney read one of the poems in this collection, "Peter Street at Bankside", when the first stone was laid for the theatre's foundation. When the venue was rebuilt in the early 2000s, the poem was carved into its new foundation. At the Lyric, O'Malley delighted in staging plays "banned by the Republic and refused by the Abbey; Chekov, Ibsen, Strinberg and Brecht" (Irish Times). She later won a council seat as an independent Labour candidate, established the literary magazine Threshold (to which Heaney contributed), and served on the Literature Committee of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Eleven Poems prints several of Heaney's popular early pieces, such as "Personal Helicon" and "Scaffolding", and also includes a printed notice for his "first book of poems, 'Death of a Naturalist', due from Faber, Spring 1966." Heaney presented this copy to O'Malley in the month of publication, and she sent a letter thanking him on 18 November, saying that she found "'Mid-Term Break' very moving indeed" (Emory, Seamus Heaney Papers). Brandes & Durkan A1b. "Energetic Patron who Helped Create the Lyric", The Irish Times, 29 April 2006. Single quire, octavo. Original wire-stitched wrappers printed in black and purple. Housed in a green quarter morocco folding box by the Chelsea Bindery. Lightly toned and creased, a few small marks, a near-fine copy.

First edition, first issue (with the nine-point sun symbol), of Heaney's rare first published work, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the reverse of the front wrapper, "For Brendan & Pat: with every good wish, Seamus". The recipients, Brendan and Pat McCrystal, first met Heaney at their engagement party. The party was hosted by the principal of St Colmcille's Secondary School, Crossgar, Co. Down, and one of the English teachers, Marie Devlin, brought her then boyfriend (and later husband), Seamus Heaney. Both Brendan McCrystal and Heaney had links with St Joseph's Teacher Training College in Belfast, and the McCrystals and Heaneys maintained a friendship throughout the 1960s. Heaney's first published work includes a printed notice regarding his "first book of poems, 'Death of a Naturalist', due from Faber, Spring 1966". Several popular Heaney pieces first appeared in Eleven Poems, including "Personal Helicon" and "Death of a Naturalist". In Heaney's 1995 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he stated "I credit [poetry] ultimately because [it] can make an order as true to the impact of external reality and as sensitive to the inner laws of the poet's being as the ripples that rippled in and rippled out across the water in that scullery bucket fifty years ago. An order where we can at last grow up to that which we stored up as we grew. An order which satisfies all that is appetitive in the intelligence and prehensile in the affections. I credit poetry, in other words, both for being itself and for being a help, for making possible a fluid and restorative relationship between the mind's centre and its circumference." In the opening poem of this debut collection, "Personal Helicon", Heaney prefigures the theme of his Nobel lecture by 30 years: "As a child, they could not keep me from wells / And old pumps with buckets and windlasses. / I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky. I rhyme / To see myself, to set the darkness echoing". Brandes & Durkan A1(a). Octavo. Original wrappers, wrappers lettered in black, front wrapper with vignette in purple. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Ownership label of Brendan & Pat McCrystal to front cover with minor loss to corner, some light browning throughout, some marks to covers, minor tears to head and foot of spine: a very good copy.

Condition: Extremely Rare. First Edition. Signed - First issue with a nine-pointed purple sun illustration to the cover. Original Publishers wrappers. p.p. 15. Signed by Seamus Heaney on the cover. Custom made solander box. Seamus Heaney, ever gracious and generous, signed this copy on my behalf at the Town Hall, Galway on the 24th April, 2013 prior to a joint reading of poetry with Michael Longley. At that time he stated he had not signed a copy of the first issue for years, so this copy is very likely to have been the last one he signed as he passed away on the 30th August 2013. A ticket for the Town Hall reading is also included which also included a reading by President Michael D. Higgins. Signed.

Condition: V.G. Third Issue. p.p. 15. Original green wrappers. Custom made solander box.