Spring 2021 Catalogue

S p r i n g 2 0 2 1 55 “A Peak Of English Poetry” 58. YEATS, William Butler. The Winding Stair and Other Poems. London, 1933. Octavo, original blind-stamped green cloth, dust jacket. $3000. Click for more info First English edition, substantially revised and expanded from the preceding limited edition of only 642 copies, in the original dust jacket, a beautiful copy. Described, along with The Tower , as “the greatest poetry of Yeats in his difficult later manner… a peak in English poetry,” The Winding Stair includes one of his most resonant poems, “ADialogue of Self and Soul,” aswell as “Byzantium” and “Words for Music Perhaps” (Connolly 56B). The title refers to Thoor Ballylee, the Norman tower that Yeats purchased, restored and dedicated to his wife Georgie Hyde-Lees. Yeats was especially focused on the book’s design and consulted with Thomas Sturge Moore, noting: “the winding stair of Ballylee... might be a mere gyre—Blake’s design of Jacob’s ladder.” Sixteen poems from this work were previously published in the 1929 first edition; 47 poems first appeared in Yeats’ 1932 Words for Music Perhaps . One of only 2000 copies printed. With tipped-in errata slip (p.85). Contemporary owner inscription. Bookseller ticket. A splendid copy in fine condition.

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