Poems. Among Shapes and Shadows.

Published by Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1939

  • First Edition
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  • Used
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Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United KingdomPeter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB.

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Item description from seller

First edition, number 197 of 350 copies, inscribed by the author, "Mr W. H. Auden, With every good wish", and dated 25 October 1939. Both poets left Britain in the build-up to the Second World War; Auden to America in January. Auden released "September 1, 1939" only 1 week earlier, on 18 October. Among Shapes and Shadows was mostly written during a stay in Oxford from 1937 to 1939. During this period, Oshima (1899-1980) took the opportunity to travel around Ireland, where he met W. B. Yeats. In 1965 he founded the Yeats Society of Japan and published his book, W. B. Yeats and Japan, which popularized the poet among a new audience. His poetry often incorporated Irish themes, such as in "The Village of Kilronan, Aran". Here, he described the stormy seas off the Aran Islands and the ships lost to the waves, recalling the stone cairns as "monuments of sea-souls' woe" (p. 33). The National Gallery of Ireland holds a copy inscribed to J. B. Yeats with the same message, dated 20 November 1939. The original wrapping has Oshima's Tokyo address, indicating that he shipped copies to his network. Kirkpatrick B87. Octavo. Collotype portrait frontispiece with tissue guard; colophon in Japanese mounted on final blank as issued. Original brown cloth, spine lettered in black and decorated with two red stars, rear board blind-stamped with publisher's device, top edge trimmed. Cloth bright, a few small marks on front board, contents clean with a minor patch of foxing on contents page: a near-fine copy.…

Seller Inventory # 195911

Bibliographic details

Title
Poems. Among Shapes and Shadows.
Author
OSHIMA, Shotaro.
Publisher
Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1939
Signed
Signed by Author(s)
Edition
1st Edition

Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB.

London, United Kingdom

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AbeBooks seller since July 26, 1999

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