MOLY

First edition, first printing. Inscribed presentation copy. Original yellow cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Berthold Wolpe. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt sharp and bright, the contents clean throughout. Light offsetting to endpapers. In the fine, bright dustwrapper, spotless except for a couple of small marks to the rear panel. Not price clipped (£1.00 net to the bottom of the front flap). A lovely copy.

Inscribed by the author in blue ink to the front free endpaper, "for James Gilvarry / Thom Gunn / with best wishes, 1977". The recipient is the bibliophile and art collector, James Gilvarry (1914-1984). 'Moly' was Gunn's fifth collection and his first since 'Touch' (1967). In his review ('New York Review of Books', 1973), Stephen Spender writes of the book that '[i]t is as though A. E. Housman were dealing with the subject matter of 'Howl', or Tennyson were on the side of the Lotus Eaters.' Published March 23, 1971, 4000 copies were printed. (Hagstrom A15).