Ē Timōria tōn Magōn [The Punishment of Wizards].

£1,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

inscribed by the author to the illustrator First edition of the author's first book, inscribed by Valaoritis in Greek to the artist John Craxton, who contributed the illustrations to the volume: 'To the happy gentleman / painter and traveller / John Craxton / with all my gratitude / for the paintings / Nanos Valaoritis'. Escaping German-occupied Greece in 1944, Valaoritis moved to London, where he quickly integrated into the British literary avant garde at the behest of George Seferis. He became closely associated with giants of modernist literature, including T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Dylan Thomas. He collaborated with Lawrence Durrell, worked under Louis MacNeice at the BBC, and contributed heavily to defining literary journals like Cyril Connolly's Horizon and John Lehmann's New Writing. It was Cyril Connolly who introduced Valaoritis to Craxton, resulting in this collaboration and helping cement Craxton's lifelong obsession with Greece. First edition, sole printing, number 156 of 450 copies, inscribed by the author; 8vo; linocut frontispiece and decorations by John Craxton, frontispiece signed in the plate; original cream wrappers printed in black, printer's ink flaw to front cover, lightly marked elsewhere, backstrip and edges of covers tanned, a couple of chips to edges with associated creasing; very good. NB: Modern Greek polytonic orthography transliterated according to the Library of Congress standard.

• Binding: Hardcover

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