LIFE STUDIES

First edition, first printing (preceding the US edition). Original burgundy cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in dustwrapper. A better than very good copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. There is a c. 3.5 cm tear to the lower edge of the fold between front pastedown and endpaper (the hinge and binding are unaffected). Light offsetting to endpapers. In the lightly soiled dustwrapper, lightly sunned to the spine, rubbed to corners, folds and tips, with an area of loss (c. 1 cm) to the lower edge of the spine panel. Short closed tear (c. 1 cm) to the upper edge of the front panel. Not price-clipped (10s 6d net to the front panel). A very presentable copy.

Ian Hamilton, in his biography of Lowell, notes that 'Life Studies', "the most "American" of Lowell's books, made its first appearance in Britain, in April 1959." Faber wanted it to be considered for selection by the newly formed Poetry Book Society, "and to qualify, the English edition had to be a 'first edition'". This resulted in the UK edition omitting the short prose memoir, "91 Revere St", which appeared in the US edition published later the same year. Critical reception was initially mixed, but the book went on to win the National Book Award for Poetry in 1960, and was quickly recognised as one of the most important works of post-war poetry in English, initiating a rich seam of autobiographical ("confessional") American poetry, as well as changing the course of Lowell's own poetry. In a 1962 interview, Sylvia Plath spoke of being excited "by what I feel is the new breakthrough that came with [...] Robert Lowell's 'Life Studies', this intense breakthrough into very serious, very personal, emotional experience which I feel has been partly taboo." (Ian Hamilton, Robert Lowell: A Biography [London, 1983]).