A CERTAIN WORLD. A Commonplace Book.

First edition, first printing. Original red and beige cloth with black titles to the spine and red foil motifs to the spine and upper board, in dustwrapper. Top edge red. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the beige cloth a little spotted. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed and marked dustwrapper that is faded and toned to the spine, without loss. Not price-clipped ($10.00 on the front flap).

A collection of literary extracts "from Homer to Bruno Bettelheim and J. R. R. Tolkien", compiled by W. H. Auden as the reading which has shaped his life, "a sort of autobiography". The UK edition, published by Faber, followed in 1971.