£300
FIRST EDITION, 8vo, pp. viii, 108. Original dark blue cloth, spine and front board lettered in gilt. A touch of spotting, a few leaves lightly soiled. Spine-ends rubbed, corners just a little worn, spine gilt dulled. Ownership inscription of Ruthven Todd to flyleaf.
The first edition of MacDiarmid's most celebrated work, in the first-issue binding of dark blue cloth. This copy belonged to the Scottish poet, novelist and critic Ruthven Todd (1914-1978). Both Todd and MacDiarmid were active in Scottish letters in the 1940s, with collections by Todd and MacDiarmid being numbers 3 and 6 respectively in Glasgow publisher William MacLellan's Poetry Scotland series, before Todd emigrated, his poetry just part of a peripatetic career that included pseudonymous detective fiction, allegorical novels and a series of children's books about a spacefaring cat.
