Hugh; FERGUSSON, John Duncan ( illustrator ). In Memoriam James Joyce. A Vision of World Language.

by MACDIARMID

£400 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Subscriber’s Copy MACDIARMID, Hugh; FERGUSSON, John Duncan ( illustrator ). In Memoriam James Joyce. A Vision of World Language. Glasgow: ‘Published on behalf of the subscribers by William MacLellan’. 1955. 4to. Publisher’s green cloth, gilt design by Fergusson to upper board, in the pale green dust-jacket printed in white; pp. 150, numerous in-text illustrations by Fergusson, one full-page and printed in green (p. 5); slight sunning to lower edge of upper board and to spine of jacket, spine ends bumped, front cover of jacket faded and stained with short closed tear at head; some offsetting to endpapers; ownership inscriptions of B. C. J. G. Knight to front free endpaper and subscribers’ list (p. 149), both dated 30 June 1955, the first made in Reading, title signed ‘Hugh MacDiarmid | Reading 12/6/60’. First edition, signed, of MacDiarmid’s encyclopaedic poetic tribute to James Joyce, the subscriber’s copy of influential British biochemist and microbiologist B. C. J. G. Knight (1904–1981). MacDiarmid began writing the poem on the Shetland Islands shortly after Joyce’s death in 1941, but publication was delayed by the death of the intended publisher, Jack Kahane of the Obelisk Press in Paris, as well as by paper shortages and increased printing and binding costs during and after the Second World War. The illustrations to the text by Fergusson incorporate Joyce’s initials in Ogam, or early Irish script, ‘together with other symbols that convey Joyce’s concern with music, creati

• Binding: Hardcover

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