ARIEL

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original red cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding square and tight, the cloth and gilt bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout, without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the bright, better than very good, lightly rubbed and creased dustwrapper that has tiny chips to the upper spine tip and a short (c. 1 cm) closed tear to the upper edge of the front panel. Not price-clipped (12s 6d net to the lower front flap). A very nice copy.

All of the poems in collected in 'Ariel' were written between the publication of Plath's debut volume, 'The Colossus and Other Poems' (1960), and her death in 1963. Edited by the poet's husband Ted Hughes, and dedicated to their children Frieda and Nicholas, the poems, blending domesticity with darker emotional and psychological landscapes, are considered by many to be her finest work. Published 11 March, 1965; 3100 copies were printed (Tabor A5a).