"WHAT PURITAN ARMS HAVE STRETCHED WITHIN THESE ROOMS / TO TOUCH WHAT TENDER BREASTS, / AS THE CAB-HORSE STAMPED IN THE ROAD OUTSIDE"

BETJEMAN, John. Metro-Land. (London): Warren Editions, (1977). Oblong octavo, original white cloth, original clamshell box. $400.

Signed limited first (and only) edition, number 97 of 220 copies signed by John Betjeman and illustrator Wynn Boyd Harte, with 16 illustrations printed in nine colors by Harte.

The verses in this volume were taken from Betjeman's commentary for Edward Mirzoeff's 1973 BBC documentary Metro-land. As explained in a "Viewing Notes" pamphlet laid into this copy, Metro-land was meant to in part celebrate the suburb: "Suburbia was where most people lived and wanted to live, although the fashionable scoffed and the planners derided it. Why not make a film about the delights of urban life, celebrating the unregarded suburbs?" Peterson A46.a.

A fine copy.