ABOUT THE HOUSE

First UK edition, first printing. Publisher's original blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. With errata slip tipped in to the contents page. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, with a touch of rubbing to the spine tips and corners. The contents, with a little spotting to the top edge of the closed text block and light offsetting to the endpapers, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed and creased dustwrapper, which is a touch faded to the spine, with a few light surface scratches to the rear panel and a little toning to the rear flap fold, is otherwise free from loss or tears. Not price-clipped (15s net to the front flap).

'About the House' begins with 'Thanksgiving for a Habitat', a sequence of twelve poems in the form of a tour through the various rooms of Auden's house in Kirchstetten in Austria, each poem dedicated to a friend, living or dead. Highlights include the beautiful third poem, 'The Cave of Making', dedicated to the memory of Louis Macneice and 'The Geography of the House', the sixth, for Christopher Isherwood. The book is dedicated to the writer, Edmund Wilson and his wife Elena; Wilson was an early champion of Auden's frequently misunderstood (and under-appreciated) later work. The first UK edition of 'About the House' was published on 27 January, 1966 in an edition of 4000 copies (the US edition had been issued in July, 1965). (Bloomfield A49b).