FIELD WORK

First edition, first printing. Original brown cloth, lettered in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper reproducing a map of Glanmore, Co. Wicklow. 'Field Work' was the Poetry Book Society Choice for Autumn 1979 and the society's Bulletin, featuring Heaney's introduction to the volume, is loosely laid in to this copy. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean and bright throughout. The near fine dustwrapper is only lightly faded to the spine, far less so than usual and without spreading to front or rear panels. There are a couple of light marks to the unclipped front flap, correctly priced £3.00 net to the lower corner. A lovely copy.

Following 'North' (1975), in which Heaney dealt most explicitly with the 'Troubles', it was four years until 'Field Work' emerged. The later book reflects Heaney's move away from Belfast to a cottage in Glanmore, rural Wicklow and "an attempt [...] to change the note and to lengthen the line". The book includes elegies, love poems, the series of 'Glanmore Sonnets', and ends with 'Ugolino', the poet's rendering of Cantos 32-3 of Dante's Inferno.