Dialogue Over a Ouija Board; A Verse Dialogue by Plath, Sylvia; Baskin, Leonard (Artist) - 1981

Cambridge, England: Rainbow Press, 1981. First and Limited Edition. Vellum. Fine. Baskin, Leonard. Number 57 of 140 copies, octavo size, 32 pp. Designed and printed by Sebastian Carter at the Rampant Lions Press, Cambridge. "Along with compiling lists of potential subjects for Plath's poems and stories, her husband Ted Hughes advised her on meditation techniques, and used hypnotism and their hand-made Ouija board on a regular basis. Calling these sessions 'magnificent fun,' Plath was intrigued by the concept of 'Pan', their main 'spirit contact' called on for advice on poetry subjects, and sometimes to get numbers for horse races." Many poems were inspired by this process, the two most notable being Plath's Ouija, and Dialogue Over a Ouija Board, a conversation between a couple, Sibyl and Leroy, about the nature of channeling itself. "Ultimately, that particular verse drama ends with the two concluding: 'When lights go out / May two real people breathe in a real room.' Plath writes in The Colossus (interestingly, Pan's own 'family god', was named 'Kolossus'): 'Perhaps you consider yourself an oracle / Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other.' Or perhaps not. Either way, for Plath, channeling was one means of coming in contact with herself." (n. b., from the poet web site Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath's Art of the Visual, pp. 111-112.)

___DESCRIPTION: Full vellum bound by Alan Winstanley, Salisbury (with the binder's ticket on the rear pastedown), lettered in gilt to the backstrip, top-edge gilt, hand-made paper endpapers, frontispiece by Leonard Baskin, title page in black and blue; hand set in Frederic Warde's Arrighi-Vicenza type, Barcham Green Canterbury hand-made paper, octavo size (10" by 5.75"), pagination: [1-6] 7-30 [1 blank] [1 colophon], first edition, limited, number 57 of 140 copies. Housed in a cardboard slipcase, covered with tan hand-made paper.

___CONDITION: A stunning copy, with clean vellum, corners and edges straight and unrubbed, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, beautifully printed and internally bright, entirely free of prior owner markings; except for slight sun-toning to the slipcase, a fine copy.

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