Briggflatts : The First Issue

The First UK printing published by The Fulcrum Press in 1966. Printed in a limited edition of only 500 copies. The BOOK is in near Fine condition. Folio size. The book is bound in stiff card decorated covers. Decorated cover, title page and full page titles in red and black by Barry Hall and Nick Strausfield. A hint of light marking to the fawn covers. Clean internally. Light spotting to the text-block. Publisher s loose small printing slip present. A very scarce title and the first I have handled. There has been a lot of resurgent interest in Bunting in the last year. BBC Radio 4 have run an acclaimed series of programmes on Briggflatts and Basil Bunting and there has been an equally fair amount of coverage in the newspaper press. The 'New Yorker' review of Basil Bunting (2016) : 'Though some reviewers were exasperated by its difficulty, Briggflatts was received by most as a masterpiece, hailed as the successor to Pound s Cantos and Eliot s Four Quartets by such critics as Thom Gunn and Cyril Connolly. Bunting went from obscurity to worldwide recognition, earning new admirers among the Beats (and the Beatles), invitations to read and record, critical celebrations, and the occasional attentions of documentary crews'. The Poetry Foundation : 'Described as the last minor master of the modernist mode by Donald Hall in the New York Times Book Review, Bunting achieved his greatest popularity during his lifetime in the mid-1960s as one of the leaders of the new British literary avant-garde. Bunting was also associated with the loosely affiliated American group of poets known as the Objectivists, and he corresponded frequently with poets such as William Carlos Williams, Louis Zukofsky, Lorine Niedecker, among many others. Ezra Pound, whom Bunting worked for in the late 1920s, was an early admirer of Bunting, and advocated on behalf of his work. But by most accounts it took the interest and encouragement of the younger generation of poets such as Pickard and Gael Turnbull to spur Bunting to his greatest work, produced in the 1960s. In analysing the bulk of his work, some critics find Bunting s later poetry less reminiscent of his early influences; most consider 'Briggflatts' his best work.' Accompanied by a small booklet produced by the Basil Bunting Poetry archive in 1989, entitled Basil Bunting - A Note On Briggflatts . This is a number 270' of 700 issued (of a total edition of 1000 copies). This is also in near Fine condition. A handsome production and a very sharp copy of Bunting's elusive masterpiece. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.