THE COLLECTED POEMS OF GEORGE MACKAY BROWN

First edition, first printing. Original black cloth lettered in silver to the spine, in the dustwrapper with a wraparound photograph by Doug Houghton. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. A touch of spotting and toning to the upper edge of the page block. In the near fine dustwrapper, a little faded to the spine with a touch of light shelf wear to the upper edges and corners. A nice copy of this important, and quite uncommon, collection.

In their preface to this long awaited Collected Mackay Brown, Archie Bevan and Brian Murray note that the four Selected volumes issued during the poet's lifetime (in 1971, 1977, 1991 and 1996) offered only "an inadequate representation of his work's quantity, range and quality". This magisterial volume – containing 421 poems as against the 86 in the 1996 Selected Poems – prints all the poet's collections intact, as well as selections from work published posthumously. "George Mackay Brown has added uniquely and steadfastly to the riches of poetry in English: his sense of the world and his way with words are powerfully at one with each other." (Seamus Heaney).