BERRYMAN'S SONNETS

First UK edition, first printing. Original light brown cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. Softened and faded to spine tips (c. 2 mm), very light spotting to the upper edge of the page block. In the dustwrapper, rubbed and nicked to tips and corners and lightly marked to the rear panel. Not price-clipped (publisher's £1.20 net sticker overlaid upon the original price to the front flap).

Berryman's sequence of 115 sonnets was written over a period of several months during the 1940's. All except one (no. 25) remained unpublished until the appearance of this volume. The poems were written when, after several years of marriage, he had fallen in love with the young wife of an academic colleague. The published sequence is preceded by a new introductory poem (in block capitals) in which Berryman sets the scene in a register reminiscent of the longer sequence of 'Dream Songs' that he was engaged with during the 1960s (as distinct from the relatively earnest, solemn tone of the sonnets themselves): "HE MADE, A THOUSAND YEARS AGO, A-MANY SONGS / FOR AN EXCELLENT LADY, WIF WHOM HE WAS IN WUV, / SHALL NOW HE PUBLISH THEM?HAS HE THE RIGHT, UPON THAT OLD YOUNG MAN, / TO BARE HIS NERVOUS SYSTEM / & DISPLAY ALL THE CLOUDS AGAIN AS THEY WERE ABOVE?". Berryman dedicated the volume to his American publisher Robert Giroux. The UK edition, published in an edition of 1500 copies on April 22, 1968, followed the US edition issued the previous year. (Stefanik A 13.1.b).