COLLECTED POEMS

First edition, first printing. Original black cloth lettered and ruled in silver to the spine, in the dustwrapper with Sue Linney's illustration of the author to the front panel. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout, the page block as usual a little toned owing to the poor quality paper stock. In the fine, bright dustwrapper. Not price-clipped (£27.50 net to the front flap). A very nice copy.

George Barker must be the longest serving Faber poet. His first volume was published by the firm in 1935 when the poet was just twenty-two years old (freshly discovered by T. S. Eliot, who remained a staunch supporter and admirer), the final volume arriving in 1992, a year after the poet's death. In addition to the work published by Faber, this generous volume (weighing in at over eight hundred pages) contains the poems published by smaller presses, as well as previously uncollected work. It has been meticulously edited (at Barker's request) by Robert Fraser (who has since written the definitive biography) in collaboration with the poet. Reviewing the book on the Channel Four television programme, 'Book Choice' (12 June, 1987), Harold Pinter claimed that "read[ing] these poems is like watching somebody walking from line to line effortlessly, as if on water. No richer volume of collected poetry has been published in years." (Robert Fraser, 'The Chameleon Poet': A Life of George Barker' [London: 2001]).