Louis. Out of the Picture. A Play in Two Acts.

by MACNEICE

£5,000 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Presented to Auden MACNEICE, Louis. Out of the Picture. A Play in Two Acts. London: Faber and Faber . 1937. 8vo. Original light brown cloth lettered in blue to the spine, in the supplied first state dust-jacket priced 6s. net to the front flap; pp. [4], 127, [1]; cloth toned and dusty (notably to spine) with a handful of stains to rear board; the dust-jacket, lightly toned to spine, is a little dusty to the rear panel, rubbed and nicked to spine tips and corners with a closed tear ( c . 20 mm) to the lower edge of the rear spine fold; presentation inscription in black ink to front free endpaper, dated 15 June 1937 ( see below ). First edition, first printing, inscribed by Louis MacNeice to W. H. Auden in the month of publication, ‘To Wystan | from | Louis | with all | wishes | 15. 6. 37.’ If books signed or inscribed by Auden are relatively common, those by MacNeice are notably harder to find, making this volume, warmly inscribed to Auden, particularly pleasing. MacNeice and Auden met as students at Oxford. By the time MacNeice arrived in 1926, Auden, already in his second year, already had a reputation as a poet. Also present were Stephen Spender and Cecil Day Lewis, but in spite of later ‘Thirties Poets’ and ‘Auden Generation’ labels, there was never a group or gang of any kind. Auden and MacNeice became and remained close friends, and it is their work that has clearly stood the test of time influencing later (and current) generations of poets. In the summer of 1936, the pa

• Printing: first
• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.