LETTERS FROM ICELAND

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author, W. H. Auden. Original green cloth with red and grey lettering to the spine, in the dustwrapper, the front panel illustrated with a half-tone landscape photograph. With 51 illustrations, six diagrams and fold-out map. Upper edge with the publisher's blue topstain. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and lettering sharp, the contents clean throughout. Light toning to extremities of the cloth where light has seeped beneath the wrapper.2 A touch rubbed and pushed to the lower spine tip. Very light (barely visible) spotting to the fore-edge of the page block. In the better than usual example of the dustwrapper, the red lettering on the spine a little faded, rubbed and nicked to spine tips and corners, the laminate toned as usual. Not price-clipped (9s. net to the front flap). A particularly sharp and bright example.

Neatly signed by Auden in black ink to the centre of the blank page between endpaper and half title. Auden and Macneice's generous hybrid of travelogue, poetry, and letters in verse and prose, included Auden's great 'Letter to Lord Byron', its five parts spread across the book. The volume has deservedly achieved its classic status and rarely, if ever, been out of print. Published 6 August 1937, 10,240 copies of the first impression were printed. (Bloomfield A15).