DOOR INTO THE DARK

First edition, first printing. From the library of the ecclesiastical historian and priest, Monsignor Ambrose Macaulay, with, loosely laid in, a hand-written postcard addressed to Macaulay from Seamus Heaney. Publisher's original black cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding firm, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with Macaulay's name and date in ink to the upper corner of the front free endpaper, are otherwise clean and bright throughout. In the bright, clean dustwrapper that remains without fading, loss or tears, showing a couple of tiny surface marks and the merest shelfwear. Not price-clipped (15s net to the lower front flap). A lovely copy.

With the ownership inscription and date (June 24, 1969, a week after publication) of the ecclesiastical historian, Ambrose Macaulay (1934-2019), former chaplain at Queen's University, Belfast (Heaney's alma mater), later serving as a parish priest, first at St Anthony's, later at St Brigid's, Belfast. Loosely laid in is a postcard from Heaney (with his Strand Road, Dublin address printed at the top), dated "25. 1. '96": "Dear Ambrose, / "The bounty of Sweden" was made more beautiful last October by / the generosity and solidarity / of old friends. Thank you / for writing like that. / Seamus". The Swedish bounty referred to is the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1995, which Heaney had been awarded and which was announced on 5 October. His Nobel lecture was delivered at the Swedish Academy on 7 December. 'Door into the Dark', Heaney's second full-length collection, followed three years after 'Death of a Naturalist'. Like the earlier collection, it looks back to the poet's rural upbringing in a language of great sensuousness and immediacy. The volume is dedicated to the author's parents. "His subject is those things which are inherent or inherited. What he praises is to be praised in his own work." (Christopher Ricks, 'New Statesman'). Published on 16 June, 1966, the Faber archive does not record the number of copies printed. (Brandes and Durkan A5a.)