The Grieving Senses and Other Poems

Poet: Ann Richards

1971 signed and inscribed first edition, Branden Press (Boston, Massachusetts), 5 5/8 x 8 3/4 inches tall red cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, gilt lettering to spine, 69 pp. Very slight rubbing to covers. Nicely inscribed and signed by the author, Australian actress and author Ann Richards (1917-2006), on the blank front free-endpaper. Two brief ink notations with page references on front pastedown. Otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a lightly soiled, creased and rubbed dust jacket which has a crudely taped 4-inch tear to the rear cover but which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. 

A scarce poetry compilation by Ann Richards,  who achieved notability in a series of 1930s Australian films for Ken G. Hall as Shirley Ann Richards before moving to the United States, where she continued her career as a film actress, mainly as an MGM starlet. Her best known performances were in It Isn't Done (1937), Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), An American Romance (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In the 1930s, she was the only Australian actor under a long-term contract to a film studio, Cinesound Productions. She subsequently became a lecturer and poet.