CONVERSATIONS AT MIDNIGHT (First UK edition - printed on American sheets)

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Published by Hamish Hamilton, 90 Great Russell Street, London, 1937

About this Item

First impression of the first UK edition, which was printed using American sheets. The book was originally published in the USA by Harper & Brothers, New York. With a three-page Foreword and details of the Characters by the author. ***Very good in blue cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are generally clean, but there are some marks commensurate with age and handling, some fading to the extremities and foxing. No bumps or creases. Corners sharp. Head and tail of spine slightly rubbed and creased. Spine slightly faded and browned but gilt titles still bright. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally near fine with no ownership inscriptions. No foxing. Pages clean. No dustwrapper. 207mm x 140mm. xv prelim-pages plus 126 pages of text. ***'The manuscript of "Conversation at Midnight" was destroyed by fire about a year ago, when the Palms Hotel on Sanibel Island burned down. Before coming north after a winter in Florida I had wished to visit the islands of Sanibel and Captiva, to look for sea-shells, of which there are some very fine ones to be found on these beaches. I arrived at the Palms Hotel an hour or so before sunset, engaged a room, and had my luggage sent up. I did not go up to the room myself; I went out at once upon the beach to gather shells. Looking back up the beach a few minutes later, I saw the hotel in flames. "Conversation at Midnight" as printed here is made up of poems from the first draft, remembered word for word; poems incompletely remembered, and reconstructed; and new poems written within the last year.' (Quote taken from the Author's Foreword). ***'Edna St. Vincent Millay (Feb 22, 1892 - Oct 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of her prose and hackwork verse under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. Millay won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her poem "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"; she was the first woman and second person to win the award. In 1943, Millay was the sixth person and the second woman to be awarded the Frost Medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry. Millay was highly regarded during much of her lifetime, with the prominent literary critic Edmund Wilson calling her "one of the only poets writing in English in our time who have attained to anything like the stature of great literary figures.'' By the 1930s, her critical reputation began to decline, as modernist critics dismissed her work for its use of traditional poetic forms and subject matter, in contrast to modernism's exhortation to "make it new." However, the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1960s and 1970s revived an interest in Millay's works.' ***'A long verse poem passionately searching for new gods to replace tattered idols. It is a sequence that provides daring and provocative expression in the dialogue between six men of widely different tastes to explore the new thinking of the time. After a kerosene heater exploded in a hotel in which Millay was staying in 1936, the ensuing fire destroyed the only copy of this work. She would go on to rewrite it from memory and release it the following year.' (Wiki) ***First impression of the first UK edition. A very uncommon title. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 8898

Bibliographic Details

Title: CONVERSATIONS AT MIDNIGHT (First UK edition ...

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 90 Great Russell Street, London

Publication Date: 1937

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

Edition: First UK Edition