“Letters From Iceland” by W.H. Auden and Louis
MacNeice. First American Edition
published simultaneously with the British Edition.
Published in the United States by Random House, New York,
1937. First Edition. Was published by Faber and Faber, London, 1937.
Signed W.H.Auden on the
lovely pictorial title page, underlining his name and striking his printed
name.
(our very first book as a bookseller was selling W.H. Auden’s collected poetry,
similarly striked underneath it).
Signed above the right
front endpaper -- endpapers front and back are 2 page color topographical map
of Iceland -- Clare Boothe Luce signed in her beautiful calligraphy. Otherwise, the
endpapers are clean. 269 immaculate blue top-edged pages with 59 photos, maps,
diagrams. See the table of contents and list of illustrations.
This is a book of Auden's poetry (mostly), prose, and
letters. It is a whimsical loving travel book about Iceland that both Auden and
MacNeice loved and travelled through, even riding the ancient breed of
sure-footed Icelandic horses, the same breed brought to Iceland by the Vikings.
Beautifully bound in buff linen with clean blue & white
pictorial pastedowns on the front cover and spine. Very light wear, a few tiny spots of soiling
a lovely book.
Comes in an unclipped pictorial dust jacket priced at
$3.00. See the photos. Chipping with some losses along the top edges and some
soiling and small tears on the outer edges, still a beautiful dust jacket,
which is housed in new, clear mylar cover - there are no repairs made to the
dust jacket. Please see our many photos.
An important
and lovely book with extraordinary provenance. In 2006 we purchased over 2,000
books from the Luce Estate in New York City, belonging to Henry Luce, Clare
Boothe Luce, Henry “Hank” Luce III. Many of the books were signed. The books
belonging to Clare Boothe Luce typically bore her wonderfully unique pictorial
bookplate with the Pilgrim’s Progress question asked by Wordly Wiseman and answered by Christian
“Ex Libris Clare Boothe ‘How Camest
Thou By Thy Burden At First? By Reading This Book In My Hand’, or with her
three signature variations as possession notes in the front endpapers. From our
experience the calligraphy signature was the most rarely used and we think it
the most beautiful. THIS IS OUR LAST BOOK FROM OUR ACQUISITION OF THE BOOKS FROM THE LUCE FAMILY.
Book measures 12-1/8” tall x 9-1/4” wide x 1” thick or 30.8,
23.5, 2.54cm.
Wystan Hugh “W.H.” Auden (1907 –
1973) was an Anglo-American poet born in England, later an
American citizen, and is regarded by many critics as one of the greatest
writers of the 20th century. In 1937, Auden published his famous “Letters From
Iceland. verse and prose, with Louis MacNeice” and throughout his life had a
keen fascination for Iceland and the Norse Sagas. Auden was a lifelong Anglican
and student and commentator on religion -- liberal religion and politics, was
the posture of W.H. Auden and his life companion, Christopher Isherwood.
Auden’s work is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its
engagement with moral and political issues, and its variety in tone, form and
content. The central themes of his poetry are love, politics and citizenship,
religion and morals, and the relationship between unique human beings and the
anonymous, impersonal world of nature. His early poems from the late 1920s and
early 1930s, written in an intense and dramatic tone and in a style that
alternated between telegraphic modern and fluent traditional, established his
reputation as a left-wing political poet and prophet. In the late 1930s he
became uncomfortable in this role and abandoned it after he moved to the United
States in 1939, where in 1946 he became an American citizen. In his poems from
the 1940s he explored religious and ethical themes in a less dramatic manner
than in his earlier works, and combined traditional forms and styles with new,
original forms. The focus of many of his poems from the 1950s and 1960s was on
the ways in which words revealed and concealed emotions. Auden took a
particular interest in writing opera librettos, a form ideally suited to direct
expression of strong feelings. He was also a prolific writer of prose essays
and reviews on literary, political, psychological and religious subjects, and
he worked at various times on documentary films, poetic plays and other forms
of performance. Throughout his career he was both controversial and
influential. After his death, some of his poems, notably "Funeral Blues"
("Stop all the clocks"), "Musée des Beaux Arts",
"Refugee Blues", "The Unknown Citizen", and "September
1, 1939", became known to a much wider public than during his lifetime
through films, broadcasts, and popular media. – borrowed with much thanks from Wikipedia and edited for brevity and
relevance.
Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987)
was the first American woman appointed to major ambassadorial posts abroad,
Italy and Brazil. She was a member of the U.S. Congress from Connecticut
(1943-1947). Clare Boothe Luce was a versatile journalist, editor, author,
novelist, & playwright. She is best known for her 1936 hit play The Women, which had an all-female cast.
Her writings extended from drama and screen scenarios to fiction, journalism,
and war reportage. She was the wife of Henry Luce, founder and publisher of
Time Magazine, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated. Politically, Luce was
devoted to the Democratic liberalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was a
protégé of Bernard Baruch. Although she was a strong supporter of the
Anglo-American alliance in World War II, she remained outspokenly critical of
the British presence in India. A charismatic and forceful public speaker,
especially after her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1946, she campaigned
for every Republican presidential candidate from Wendell Willkie to Ronald
Reagan. Clare Boothe Luce promoted spiritual mobilization, feminism, and
conservative politics on most issues though she was always pragmatic. On her feminist beliefs she wrote: “Because I
am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say,
"She doesn't have what it takes"; They will say, "Women don't
have what it takes".”
Interestingly, both W.H. Auden and Clare Boothe Luce were friends and
supporters of the poet, Ezra Pound, through his trials.
MANY PHOTOS BELOW! PLEASE SCROLL DOWN!