THIRTY POEMS

First edition, first printing. Julien Green's copy. Original paper covered boards, lettered in red to the front panel, in the matching pale brown paper dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. Small bump to the upper edge of the spine. Complete with the dustwrapper, a touch rubbed to the spine and folds, nicked with a little loss to spine tips and to the outer corner of the front panel. Small closed tear (c. 1 cm) to the upper edge of the front panel. Not price-clipped ($1 to the upper front flap). A lovely copy of Merton's first book, once owned by the French-American novelist and diarist, Julien Green.

With the ownership inscription of "Julian Green / March 1945" in black ink to the front free endpaper. Green's real first name was Julian, the Gallic variant, Julien, applied by the author's French publisher in the 1920s. Although he generally signed his (mainly French) books Julien, he evidently continued to use Julian for the books he owned. Green was the first non-French national to be elected to the Académie française. A prolific novelist, his reputation owes more to his extensive diaries (in nineteen volumes), which provide a rich chronicle of his literary and religious life as well as the Parisian literary world, than to his fiction. Thomas Merton, the American writer and theologian (also born in France), conducted a correspondence with Green and wrote an essay on his fiction ('To Each His Darkness', collected in 'Raids on the Unspeakable' [1966]). 'Thirty Poems', Merton's first book, was written and published at a crucial point in the author's life. He had completed the manuscript in 1943. In March the following year, he made his temporary profession of vows as a Trappist monk. Uncertain about publishing the book, he was persuaded by his superior at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani to go ahead with publication. The book was issued by James Laughlin at New Directions in November 1944.