SWEENEY ASTRAY. A Version From The Irish.

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Softcover issue. Publisher's green card covers printed in white and black with an illustration by Colin Middleton to the upper cover. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm with mild rubbing to the extremities and a diagonal crease to the lower third of the rear panel. The contents are clean throughout.

Inscribed pre-publication by Seamus Heaney in blue ink on the half title "For Frank / Astray on the Stand - / fondly / Seamus / 28th October 1983". The recipient is Frank Pike, editor at Faber, who over four decades, from the 1960s onwards, was responsible for the Faber drama list, recruiting Tom Stoppard, Simon Gray, Brian Friel, Sam Shepard, and Alan Bennett, among others, as well as working closely with authors already publishing with the firm, notably Samuel Beckett. Heaney's translation of the medieval Irish epic Buile Shuibhne won the 1985 PEN Translation Prize for verse. 3,000 copies of the softcover and 1000 copies in hardcover were published simultaneously in November 1983. (Brandes & Durkan A34b).