CROW: From the Life and Songs of the Crow.

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original black cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in the Leonard Baskin illustrated dustwrapper. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, with a bump to the bottom edge of the lower oard. The contents, with a previous owner's name on the front endpaper and some spotting to the endpapers and closed text block edge are otherwise clean throughout. Complete with the mildly spine toned dustwrapper, that is otherwise bright and without loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£1.00 net to the front flap).

The poems collected in 'Crow' were mostly written between 1966 and 1969, following a fallow period after the death of Sylvia Plath. In a letter to Leonard Baskin, whose drawing graces the (now iconic) jacket, Hughes described the book as his masterpiece, and it was Baskin's drawings of crows that first prompted Hughes to write the sequence (centred around the central character/symbol of Crow). The book was reissued with seven extra poems in 1972, with a further three being added to the limited edition published in 1973. The poet Peter Porter wrote at the time that "English poetry has found a new hero and nobody will be able to read or write verse now without the black shape of Crow falling across the page". Published 12 October 1970 in an edition of 4000 copies. (Sagar A 25).