FROM GLASGOW TO SATURN

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Hardcover issue. Original black cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt sharp, the contents clean throughout. Top edge coloured yellow. In the fine, bright and clean dustwrapper, just a touch faded to the spine, complete with the Carcanet liveried 'Poetry Book Society Choice' wraparound band. Not price-clipped (£2.25 to the front flap). A particularly bright copy of Morgan's landmark volume, uncommon in this condition, especially so signed.

Signed by Edwin Morgan in blue ink to the title page. 10/40 is neatly written in pencil to the upper corner of the front free endpaper, suggesting this to be number 10 of 40 signed copies. 'From Glasgow to Saturn' was Morgan's first collection to be published by Carcanet Press (at the time based in suburban Cheadle). Following 'The Second Life' (1968), it confirmed and consolidated the arrival of a uniquely energetic, inventive, and often very funny, voice: at once learnedly far-reaching – Morgan was a fine translator – while remaining rooted in the poet's native Glasgow and its own linguistic riches. The volume's title (since taken up by the house literary journal of the University of Glasgow) encapsulates and extends this range, reaching beyond the global to the interplanetary, and Morgan's characteristically idiosyncratic brand of science-fiction. As Frederick Grubb wrote in the Tribune (October 26, 1973), "His language is that force which disturbs, renews and orders actuality. If you suspect 'science-fiction' writing is a sellout to capitalist follies, Morgan convinces you that imagination can beat technology at its own game: the poet rehumanises what dehumanises."