RUINS AND VISIONS (First edition - second impression - a near fine example in a near fine dustwrapper)

A second impression of the true first edition of Spender's fifth poetry collection - published in September 1942, the same year as the first impression. This copy is unusual in being virtually fine, with some gatherings being still uncut at the bottom edge, indicating a fine unread example. ***Near fine in pale-green cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The gilt is still beautifully bright, having been protected by the dustwrapper. The boards are perfectly clean and unmarked. No creases or bumps. No tears to the cloth. Corners sharp. No reading lean to the fragile binding. Spine tight. Top edge of page block unusually clean. Fore-edge of page block untrimmed as is common with Faber editions from this period. Internally also near fine, with no previous ownership inscriptions. None of the usual foxing. Pages clean. No tears or creases apart from a production crease at the top of pp.41-44 (please see scans). Quality paper stock used, as I believe Faber & Faber had managed to stockpile paper in the early stages of the war. ***In an unusually near fine dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 6s. net. The thin and fragile dustwrapper is complete, with just light rubbing and creasing to the extremities. No serious creases, chips or tears. Just a sliver of loss at the top of the spine, which is also very slightly faded. The dark-blue titles on the spine are completely unfaded, but the titles on the front panel are bright and unfaded. Dustwrapper clean and bright. ***84 pages. 230mm x 150mm. ***'Sir Stephen Harold Spender CBE (28 Feb 1909 - 16 Jul 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1965. Spender said at various times throughout his life that he never passed any exam. Perhaps his closest friend and the man who had the biggest influence on him was W. H. Auden, who introduced him to Christopher Isherwood. Spender handprinted the earliest version of Auden's "Poems". He left Oxford without taking a degree and in 1929 moved to Hamburg. Isherwood invited him to Berlin. Every six months, Spender went back to England. Spender was acquainted with fellow Auden Group members Louis MacNeice, Edward Upward and Cecil Day-Lewis. He was friendly with David Jones and later came to know William Butler Yeats, Allen Ginsberg, Ted Hughes, Joseph Brodsky, Isaiah Berlin, Mary McCarthy, Roy Campbell, Raymond Chandler, Dylan Thomas, Jean-Paul Sartre, Colin Wilson, Aleister Crowley, F. T. Prince and T. S. Eliot, as well as members of the Bloomsbury Group, particularly Virginia Woolf. He was involved with American writer William Goyen and later traveled with a group through India with Goyen's former partner, American artist Joseph Glasco. (Wiki) ***"After reading his poems you will feel you have been shown a remarkable X-Ray picture of our time; blurred and uncertain in places, but suddenly revealing, with extraordinary clarity, processes at work you were only vaguely conscious of before." - John Lehmann, Tribune ***"Confirms his position among the most individual and gifted of living writers." - Listener (Quotes taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper). ***A second impression of the true first edition in exceptionally nice condition. A wartime Stephen Spender title in its original dustwrapper, with the book and dustwrapper in beautiful collectable condition. Very uncommon in this condition. One of a number of pre-war and wartime Faber editions, in their stylish typographical dustwrappers, that we have listed on ABE Books (please see scans). ***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.…