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Wonderful presentation copy of British poet and radio dramatist, Henry Reed's (1914-1986) sole book of poetry published in his lifetime. This collection contains his important WWII set of 3 poems,Lessons of the War,which includes "The Naming of the Parts."It also contains a paroty of T.S. Eliot, "Chard Whitlow." This copy warmly inscribed by Reed to Elizabeth Bishop, the two being close friends during their time teaching at the University of Washington: "X Henry Reed: His Mark, with much love to Elizabeth. Seattle 1966." After Theodore Roethke's death in 1963, the University of Washington scrambled to fill his shoes and hired guest lecturers over the next few years. These included John Logan, Robert Lowell, Vernon Watkins, Elizabeth Bishop, and Henry Reed. Reed and Bishop became close friends during their time there, their relationship based, at least in part, on similarities others around them found unpleasant at times. An excellent account of this can be found inRemembering Elizabeth Bishop: An Oral Biographyby Gary Fountan and Peter Brazeau, which we will quote at length but also encourage further reading: "Bishop was ill with asthma and colds throughout her stay in Seattle. On the evening of 9 March she was struck with a virulent strain of the Asiatic flu.As she lay in bed in the hospital, her face was as white as her hair. She left the hospital after several days convinced that she had had a heart attack (although the doctors assured her that she had not) and complaining about the twenty-four-dollar cab ride back to her apartment. While she was in the hospital, Henry Reed, the colleague who became Bishop's closest literary friend in Seattle, took over her last class meetings before spring break. In his sonorous British accent, he read Bishop's poems, which Bishop herself had refused to do, to her students. Reed had been the visiting poet the year before and had stayed on for an additional year. In Bishop, Reed found a like-minded colleague, a brilliant, knowledgeable litterateur who liked to teach the formal elements of poetry. He and Bishop would get together and complain about the plight of teachers of poetry. They drank to excess together. They also went on a diet together: 'They dutifully got their armed forces physical conditioning booklet. Henry would call, 'Well, Elizabeth, did you do your sit-ups?' 'Well, did you do yours?' I don't think it lasted very long; knowing Henry, it couldn't have.' [Wesley Wehr interview.]Bishop and Reed had a similar sense of humor, caustic at times, which came across as a snobbish, elitist air to their colleagues." Truly a great association on this important poetry collection, from a brief and very interesting time in Bishop's and Reed's lives. 8vo, 59pp. Presentation copy, inscribed by Reed on the ffep to Elizabeth Bishop, dated 1966 in Seattle, and with a single correction in his hand on pg. 40. Publisher's green cloth boards with silver lettering to spine in patterned jacket. Some toning to edges of boards, corners lightly bumped. Jacket price clipped and with some rubbing to extremities. Near fine.
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