Private Press and Illustrated Poetry Summer 2007 Bertram Rota Ltd 31 LONG ACRE COVENT GARDEN, LONDON WC2E 9LT Telephone: + 44 (0) 20 7836 0723 * Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7497 9058 E-mail: [email protected] www.bertramrota.co.uk _________________________ TERMS OF BUSINESS. The items in this catalogue are offered at net sterling prices, for cash upon receipt. Charges for postage and packing will be added. Dollar equivalents at the current rate of exchange may be shown on accounts for the convenience of customers in the U.S.A. All books are insured in transit. PAYMENT. Payment from abroad may be made by Money Order, Banker‟s Draft, personal dollar cheque or Giro. Our Girobank account number is 58 423 4201. We also accept payment by BARCLAYCARD/VISA and MASTERCARD/EUROCARD/SWITCH. To make use of this facility please quote the number, date of expiry and three digit security number of your card, as well as your name and address. V.A.T. We regret that Value Added Tax must be charged on orders from customers within the European Economic Community for autograph letters and manuscripts (unless they are bound in the form of a book), drawings, prints, photographs, artists‟ proofs of wood-engravings and engraved wood-blocks. WANTS LISTS. We are pleased to receive lists of books especially wanted. They are given careful attention and quotations are submitted without charge. HOURS OF BUSINESS. We are open from 9.30 to 5.30 from Monday to Friday. Appointment recommended. Overleaf: Simon Armitage, Five Eleven Ninety Nine; a poem for the millennium. Illustration by Toni Goffe Aldington (Richard) The Berkshire Kennet; a poem Peacock‟s Press, Hurst, Reading, [1955]. First Edition. One of 310 copies. Four-page leaflet. Somewhat foxed and a little creased, otherwise a nice copy. £25 Amis (Kingsley) [Poems] Fantasy Press, Swinford, Eynsham, 1954. First Edition. Wrappers. Wrappers slightly marked and ownership stamp at foot of lower wrapper, otherwise a nice copy. Scarce. Fantasy Poets No. 22. £180 Anthology Moments of Truth; nineteen short poems by living poets Keepsake Press, 1965. First Edition. One of 328 copies, only 100 of which were for sale. Wrappers. Spine slightly worn, otherwise a very nice copy. Contributors include Betjeman, Gunn and Hughes. £30 Anthology Our Word: Guerrilla Poems from Latin America Translated by Edward Dorn and Gordon Brotherston. Grossman, New York and Cape Goliard Press, London, 1968. First Edition. Royal octavo. Fine copy in soiled dust-wrapper. Parallel texts in English and Spanish. Apart from one poem by Che Guevara all the work was hitherto unpublished. £25 Anthology. Couzyn (Jeni) (Editor) Twelve to Twelve; poems commissioned for the Camden Festival Poets Trust, 1970. First Edition. One of 100 copies, out of series, signed opposite the title page by the poets who read at the Poetry D-Day, Camden Festival 1970. Large quarto. Fine copy in fine dust- wrapper. Contains poems by Ted Hughes, Stevie Smith, George MacBeth, Peter Redgrove, Adrian Henri, Lee Harwood, Tom Pickard, Michael Hamburger, Edward Lucie-Smith, Seamus Heaney, Jon Silkin and William Plomer. £450 Anthology Correspondences Texts by Jo Shapcott, Matthew Sweeney, W.H. Auden, Emily Dickinson and others. Illustrations by Jane Heather, Richard Evans, Brenda Mayo, Jane Bustin and other Eagle Gallery artists. EMH Arts/Eagle Graphics, 1999. First Edition. Oblong 12mo. Wrappers. Fine copy. £10 An artists‟ book based on the music of the contemporary British composer John Woolrich. Poets and artists responses to existing pieces of music and thoughts on the nature of influence are interwoven with texts chosen by Woolrich himself. Armitage (Simon) Five Eleven Ninety Nine; a poem for the millennium Illustrated with drawings by Toni Goffe. Clarion Publishing, Holybourne,1995. First Edition. One of 499 copies, this being one of 349 signed by the poet, artist and designer. Slim quarto. Printed by the Aldgate Press. Sewn wrappers decorated with an attractive logo designed by the artist. Printed in red and black on grey paper. Fine copy. A very appealing edition of one of the poet‟s longer verses, which evocatively describes a millennium bonfire. The atmospheric and skilful illustrations are well-matched to the text. (See cover illustration). £45 Artinian (Emily) From Ararat to Angeltown New writing from the Armenian writers‟ group Bnagir, with texts by Vahram Martirosyan, Karen Karslyan, Vahan Ishkhanyan, Marine Petrossian, Gohar Nikoghosyan and Violet Grigoryan; English translations by Margarit Tadevoysan-Ordukhanyan. Life-size photographs of the group are sensitively overlaid by parallel text translations of the writers‟ work, together with a running header transliterating a discussion on the perceived „blockade‟ on contemporary Armenian writing. London, 2005. One of an edition limited to 250 signed copies. Folio. Texts set in Nour&Patria, fonts designed in 2000 by Hrant H. Papazian to address the complexities of bilingual Armenian/Latin typography. Stiff wrappers. Preserved in blue cloth-covered portfolio with linen ties; title blind-stamped on upper board. Fine copy. £130 Bently (John) Deptfordia; mythic land, a book thereof Liver & Lights Scriptorium, London, 1995. First Edition. One of the scarce first copies in this binding. Slim octavo. Painted plaster sculpture of a pirate‟s head on upper cover. Rough paper boards in both adhesive and sewn binding. Fold-out pages, extensively illustrated with strong black-and-white images and coloured linocuts. Shades of blue tissue are interleaved throughout the book reflecting the centrality of the river to Deptford‟s history. A very nice copy, covers somewhat sun-faded. Liver & Lights No. 20. Poems in which “historical figures, places, streets and deeds jostle with current characters and buildings.” £80 Bently (John) Concerning the Poetry of Lost Things (Harrow) A compilation of handwritten texts found on the streets of Harrow, together with one collage and original graffiti by a Harrow resident. Liver & Lights Scriptorium, 2001. First Edition. Octavo. Wrappers. Fine copy. Liver & Lights No. 27. £7.99 Commissioned by Harrow Library, this “museum-case containing a selection of recently excavated literary shards” was banned there after publication, on account of the controversial nature of some of the documents. Bently believed his compilation of texts “could say more interesting, intriguing and possibly more profound things about the people of this specific corner of suburban England than any more conventional documentary procedure.” Bently (John) Yellow Moon in Brockwell Park. Illustrated. Liver & Lights Scriptorium, 2005. First Edition. One of an edition limited to 100 copies signed by the artist. Small octavo. Orange cloth boards with printed dust-wrapper. Fine copy. Liver & Lights No. 34. £35 Blaga (Lucien) Poems of Light. Versions in English by Oltea Simescu and Eric Williams. Images by Sara Philpott. Old Stile Press, Llandogo, 2002. One of 200 numbered copies, printed in dark blue and black, and signed by the translators and the artist. Imperial octavo. Pictorial boards, with cloth spine. Fine copy. £85. These poems (originally published in 1916) constitute the first collection by this important Romanian poet and philosopher (1895-1961), who was much influenced by expressionist painting, and particularly by Van Gogh. Larga was said to have painted “fiery landscapes seen through the interior eye”. For the present edition a literal translation was prepared and slowly worked into a poem in English. Sara Philpott‟s images are “a powerful mixture of drawing, monotype and collage” which “resonate perfectly with the atmosphere and moods of the poems”. Bringhurst (Robert). New World Suite Number Three; a poem in four movements for three voices. Afterword by the author outlining his approach to polyphonic poetry. The Center for Book Arts, New York, 2006. First Edition. One of an edition of seventy-five copies signed by Robert Bringhurst, Hedi Kyle, and Richard Minsky. Three volumes. Folio. Printed letterpress in hand-set display type and „Monotype‟ Dante, arranged by Barbara Henry to Robert Bringhurst‟s specifications. Binding structure designed by Hedi Kyle, each volume forming its own lectern when open. Fine copy. £1,250. In his afterword, Bringhurst, a revered poet and book designer, and author of The Elements of Typographic Style, states that „the printed text should be as fine as it can be, but it should never be the final incarnation. A book must be a place where things begin.‟ This innovative interdisciplinary work is a poem for three voices, to be read simultaneously, and its incarnation involves not only literature, but graphic design, fine binding and performance. This work could be seen as the summit of Bringhurst‟s combined design and semantic/philological powers. Brown (Bob) [Prospectus for An Anthology of] Readies for Bob Brown’s Machine. Roving Eye Press, Cagnes-sur-Mer, A.M., [1931]. Octavo. Single leaf, printed both sides. Slightly browned and creased, otherwise a nice copy. Very scarce. A prospectus for the anthology of specially written texts in the new style called for by Brown‟s newly invented Reading Machine then “being perfected and ... shortly on the market”. The anticipated contributors included Paul Bowles, Kay Boyle, Nancy Cunard, Jolas, McAlmon, Pound, and Stein. £50 Bunting (Basil) The Spoils; A Poem The Morden Tower Book Room, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Migrant Press, 1965. First Edition. Wrappers. Wrappers a little marked, but a nice copy. Name on fly-leaf. £32 Bunting (Basil) and Zakani (Obaid-e) The Pious Cat Freely translated from the Persian by Basil Bunting. Bertram Rota, 1986. First Edition. One of 200 numbered copies. Quarto. Half cloth, boards, pictorial decoration on upper cover. Fine copy. Printed by Martino Mardersteig at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, with a ten page reproduction of Bunting‟s holograph, a facsimile of the Persian pamphlet he used, and an Afterword. £50 Campbell (Ken) Horse 1994. One of an edition of 35 examples, privately printed and numbered and signed by the artist. 26 x 18 inches.