Thomas, Dylan.

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Description

Deaths and Entrances. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1946

first edition, presentation copy inscribed by the author to william york tindall together with miniature self-caricature ("a message | from | Dylan | to | Tindall | from Llareggub") on front free endpaper, 12mo, original orange cloth lettered in gilt on spine, dust-jacket, slight browning, corners together with head and foot of spine slightly frayed with some loss, some creases and tears to spine

Provenance

William York Tindall (inscription); Maurice F. Neville (Sotheby's New York, 16 November 2004, lot 429)

Literature

Connolly 96; Rolph B10

Catalogue Note

inscribed presentation copy of the collection containing some of the author's best-loved poems.

The recipient, William York Tindall, was a friend of Thomas, a Columbia University professor, and the critic who later wrote A Reader’s Guide to Dylan Thomas (1962). “Llareggub” (“buggerall” spelled backwards) is the name of the Welsh village, based on Laugharne where Thomas mostly lived, in Under Milk Wood.

Death and Entrances has the first book appearances of some of Thomas’s best-known poems: 'A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London', 'Poem in October', 'In My Craft or Sullen Art', and 'Fern Hill'.

"The little square book contains some of the best war poetry (from the home front) and Thomas’s incantatory descriptions of his childhood. His romantic, regional and religious standpoint is here combined with his surrealist manipulation of language to produce his greatest work” (Connolly)