Six titles: a) Fabula b) The Fourteenth of October c) The Days of Mars d) Ruan e) Gate to the Sea f) Visa for Avalon
Inscribed to Kenneth Macpherson, with related enclosures. 1 BRYHER. The Fourteenth of October.
Collins, London, 1954
Octavo. Original black and cream boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. Mild partial browning to the endpapers, gilt oxidized but a nice copy in the nicked and somewhat spotted dust jacket.
First UK edition, first impression. With the author’s signed presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, “Christmas Day with love and much gratitude from Fido”. The recipient was Kenneth Macpherson, Bryher’s former husband, with whom she collaborated on various literary and critical projects including the film periodical Close Up.
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2 BRYHER. Gate to the Sea.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1958
Octavo. Original white cloth-backed blue boards, titles to spine in black. With the dust jacket. Photographic illustrations by Islay de Courcy Lyons. Endpapers browned but an excellent copy in the somewhat frayed dust jacket.
First edition, first printing. The dedication copy with the author’s signed presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, “For Islay with gratitude for the photographs that bring Paestum to life more than any words Bryher 26th August 1958”. The printed dedication reads “To Kenneth and Islay”. Bryher had been married to Kenneth Macpherson; they collaborated on various literary and critical projects including the film periodical Close Up, and remained friends. Macpherson later lived with the photographer Islay de Courcy Lyons.
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3 BRYHER. Roman Wall [or, “Fabula”] A novel.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1954
Octavo. Original black cloth-backed decorated orange boards, titles to spine in silver. With the dust jacket, and a variant dust jacket entitled “Fabula”. Endpaper rather browned but an excellent copy in the two, variant dust jackets: one bearing the title Fabula, the other Roman Wall.
First edition, first printing. With the author’s signed presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, “For Kenneth who has made so much of Roman civilisation clear to me Bryher”. The recipient was Kenneth Macpherson - Macpherson and Bryher had been married (at least in name), though they were both free to explore their homosexual tendencies (Byrher famously with the poet Hilda Doolittle, H.D.), and collaborated together on various literary and critical projects including the film periodical Close Up. Laid in to this copy is an envelope of press cutting, and a two-page typed letter signed addressed to the photographer and novelist Algernon Islay de Courcy Lyons (1922–1993), who was Macpherson’s lover his last years on Capri, but had known Bryher and illustrated some of her works with his own photographs. The letter, written from Chelsea, New York, is from poet and biographer Barbara Guest (1920-2006), who wrote the biography “Herself Defined: The Poet H.D. and Her World” (Doubleday 198). The letter tells of Guest recovering from a “coshing”, awakened from a coma “by the thought of Bryher. I told myself that I wished to write about Bryher and must have the will and strength to do so. And thus proceeded to mend.” The letter goes on to discuss Bryher’s life, including her travels in India with H.D., requesting biographical information from Islay and also expressing an interest in his own photographs. It was Barbara Guest who coined the term “a menagerie of three” to describe the relationship between H.D., Bryher and Macpherson.
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4 BRYHER. Ruan. A novel.
Pantheon Books., New York, 1960
Octavo. Original blue cloth-backed blue boards, titles to spine gilt and in blue. With the dust jacket. An excellent copy in the rubbed and creased dust jacket tanned at the spine and with a small chip.
First edition, first printing. With the author’s signed presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, “Kenneth [Macpherson] with love from Bryher”. Laid into this copy is a 2-page typed letter from Bryher to Macpherson commenting on the writing of Ruan, mentioning H.D. and discussing other matters. Macpherson and Bryher had been married – at least in name – and collaborated on various literary and critical projects including the film periodical Close Up. They remained lifelong friends.
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5 BRYHER, W. The Days of Mars. A Memoir 1940 - 1946.
Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1972
Octavo. Original red boards, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. An excellent copy in the nicked dust jacket a little faded at the spine.
First Edition, First Printing. With the author’s signed presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, “Islay with best wishes from Bryher Kenwin 24th November 1971”.
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6 BRYHER, W. Visa for Avalon.
Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1965
Octavo. Original blue cloth-backed brown boards, titles to spine gilt, brown endpapers. With the dust jacket. An excellent copy in the lightly rubbed and creased dust jacket.
First Edition, First Printing. With the author’s signed presentation inscription to the half title page, “For Kenneth [Macpherson] who knows so much about Avalon. Bryher 5th July 1966”. Macpherson and Bryher had been married – at least in name – and collaborated on various literary and critical projects including the film periodical Close Up. They remained lifetime friends.
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