"TO DEEPS BEYOND THE DEEPEST REACH THE EASTER BELLS ENLARGE THE SKY"

BETJEMAN, John. A Nip in the Air. London: John Murray, (1974). Octavo, original yellow cloth, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut, original acetate. $500.

Signed limited first edition, number 158 of only 175 copies signed by Betjeman.

Betjeman's poetry "enjoyed immense popularity; his knighthood in 1969 and his appointment as Poet Laureate in 1972 were almost universally welcomed… Some of his poetry, including what he came to regard as 'merely comic verse,' is forced and feeble, but his lyrical cunning, his gusto, the originality of his topographical and amatory verse, his resonant melancholy, and his power to evoke an idiosyncratic world have secured him a place among the most gifted poets of his generation" (Hamilton, 45). Peterson A43.b.

Fine condition.