FAREWELL HAPPY FIELDS; THE LAND UNKNOWN; THE LION'S MOUTH.

Complete in three volumes. Signed by the author. 'Farewell Happy Fields' and 'The Land Unknown' are first US editions, first printings, 'The Lion's Mouth' is a UK first edition, first printing. 'The Land Unknown' is inscribed by the author. Original green, red and orange paper covered boards with gilt titles to the spines, in dustwrappers. Very good copies, the bindings firm, the extreme edges with slight fading, the extremities a little bumped. The contents with a little toning and occasional foxing spots, are otherwise clean throughout. Complete with the lightly rubbed, nicked and creased dustwrappers, that of 'Farewell Happy Fields' is price-clipped and 'The Land Unknown' has a few tiny closed tears to the spine tips and a 2.5 cm closed tear to the bottom edge of the rear panel.

Inscribed by Kathleen Raine in brown ink on the front free endpaper of 'The Land Unknown', "Desirée, with love. / Kathleen". The autobiographical trilogy of the multi award-winning British poet, critic and scholar, Kathleen Raine (1908-2003). 'Farewell Happy Fields' recalls the author's childhood in Northumbria, a place that inspired much of her writing. 'The Land Unknown' describes her education at Girton College, University of Cambridge, the literary figures she encountered there such as Graham Greene and T. S. Eliot, and the development of her philosophical ideas and identity as a writer amidst the cultural and political landscape of the 1930s and 40s. The final volume, 'The Lion's Mouth', deals largely with the strong bond and stormy relationship Raine shared with Gavin Maxwell, author of 'Ring of Bright Water, and also offers Raine's own spiritual and philosophical reflections on humanity and the modern world.