First edition, first printing. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. Printed on pale blue laid paper. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean without inscriptions or stamps. Spine tips and upper corners are a little softened, upper and lower edges a touch faded. In the near fine dustwrapper, a touch rubbed to spine tips, corners and folds. Not price-clipped (6s. net to the front flap).
Based on a series of broadcast talks addressed to young readers on the appreciation of poetry, 'Milk of Paradise', the final book Reid (best known as a novelist) published during his life, is a quirky, personal and entertaining traversal through a number of carefully chosen poems (most of which are printed in full), by, among many others, Henry Vaughan, the Romantic poets, Yeats, and Walter de la Mare. In the memorial address written for Reid (they were friends), Walter de la Mare describes 'Milk of Paradise' as the "last[,] loveliest and wisest of his books".
Stock code: 21851
£25