THE COMPLETE POEMS OF KEITH DOUGLAS

First edition, first printing. Original black cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dustwrapper illustrated with a detail from a 1944 sketch by Keith Douglas. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. Light spotting to the upper edge, and a handful of spots to the fore-edge, of the page block. In the near fine dustwrapper, a little crumpled to spine tips. Loosely laid in to this copy is the publisher's review slip with, to the verso, a handwritten note requesting a review. Not price-clipped (£3.95 net to the front flap).

This definitive edition of Douglas' poems, drawing on newly available manuscript material, remains in print today. Douglas was killed in Normandy three days after D-Day at the age of twenty-four and the small body of work he left behind is generally held to be the finest English poetry to emerge from the war. Although most of the poems were published during the forties, Douglas was notably rediscovered and championed by Ted Hughes in the sixties.