COLLECTED POEMS: 1945–1990.

First edition, first printing. Original blue cloth lettered in silver to the spine, in the M. E. Eldridge illustrated dustwrapper. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm. There is minor spotting to the closed text-block edge, a tiny dust mark to the bottom corner of the text-block and a small, blank label to the rear pastedown, the contents are otherwise clean throughout and without stamps or inscriptions. Complete with the very lightly rubbed dustwrapper that is just a touch faded to the spine. Not price-clipped (£25.00 net to the front flap). A nice copy.

Published to mark the poet's eightieth birthday, this remains the standard collected R. S. Thomas, including the contents of individual volumes from 'The Stones of the Field' (1946) through to 'Experimenting with an Amen' (1986). "This is a book I've been waiting for. Lorca said: 'The poem that pierces the heart like a knife has yet to be written.' But has anybody come closer to it than R. S. Thomas? And not merely once, in his case, but again and again." (Ted Hughes, from the jacket).