A FREE TRANSLATION

First edition. Hardcover issue. Publisher's original blue cloth with silver titles to the spine, in the dustwrapper that reproduces, in red, Henri Matisse's "Loulou in a flowered hat". A fine copy, the binding square and tight, bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the fine original dustwrapper that is without fading, loss or tears.

The poet's third collection. The first printing was issued in an edition of 1000 copies, of which 200 were hardcover (as here) and 800 were softcover. 'A Free Translation' prints six new poems (they would later appear in Raine's 1984 collection 'Rich', [Faber, 1984]). The poet James Fenton (brother of Tom Fenton, the proprietor and printer of The Salamander Press) provides a brief note printed on the back cover: "Craig Raine has set a new style and standard for his contemporaries. He has taught us to become strangers in our familiar world, to release the faculty of perception and allow it to graze at liberty in the field of experience. His first two collections established his place among the tiny number of poets of whom one asks with some eagerness: What will they write next? His imitators are to be seen at work in most places where verse is published. Yet a comparison between the imitators and the original will show how difficult are the effects which Mr Raine manages with such apparent ease. The crucial quality is this: Mr Raine's poems are discoveries, or collections of discoveries. That is what makes this new volume a source of such delight."

Stock code: 28151

£50

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Author:

RAINE, Craig

Category

Modern First Editions
Signed / Inscribed
Poetry
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