The Poetical Works of Michael Riviere

1956. First edition. 25pp. Michael Riviere (died 1997) was a Norfolk man who turned himself into a country gentleman. The son of a doctor, he worked for a brewery in Norwich and then in London and Belgium, but in the mid-1970s retired early to the rural life in the north of the county. He began reading English at Oxford, but was swept up by war. He served in the Army and was caught in the debacle of Crete in 1941. He escaped from two camps, and so was consigned to Colditz. He spent some of his time writing poems, and became a friend of the artist Dawyck Haig, 2nd Earl Haig. This little book is a collection of ten short poems, three of which were written at Colditz. Some of the poems had preciously appeared in various publications, including The Oxford Magazine. The book is bound in the original marbled paper covered boards with a red cloth spine and gold titling on the spine. The book is in very good condition with some shelf wear and light soiling on the boards and light bumping to the spine ends. The contents are secure and clean with the following handwritten inscription on the front free endpaper: "Dawyck with best wishes from a dead poet.".…