[Rarebooks] FS: Very Early Manuscript Poem by W. H. Auden

[Charles Agvent]

AUDEN, W. H AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT POEM (Juvenilia - 4 pages): "Bank Holiday"
[1926] Exceptionally scarce 4-page AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT of a poem 
written by Auden as a teenager. Published in THE OXFORD OUTLOOK in 
November 1926 and not published in book form until 1994 in W. H. AUDEN 
JUVENILIA edited by Katherine Bucknell, from which much of the 
information below was acquired. Two other manuscript copies of this poem 
are known to exist, in the collections of David Ayerst (Bloomfield J16) 
and of Christopher Isherwood, neither exactly identical to this but both 
resembling this much more than the published version which eliminated 
several stanzas present here. All told there are 78 lines divided into 
three sections on both sides of two 6-7/8" x 8-7/8" sheets of paper 
watermarked "Civic Bond" that have long agobeen neatly joined by a 
conservator who also made several paper repairs. The poem begins "The 
queen's hand on the king's cold shoulder falling." Bucknell points out 
that the poem is reminiscent of THE WASTE LAND with theleft out passages 
revealing some borrowing from Eliot's "The Hollow Men." This manuscript 
was acquired along with a letter from Auden to Robert Medley and was 
likely given to Medley at some point. Auden met and became friends with 
Medley in 1922 shortly after Auden's 15th birthday. It was Robert Medley 
who suggested that Auden try writing poetry. Later Medley helped to 
create the Group Theater where he provided scenery and costumes for the 
play ON THE FRONTIER by Auden and Isherwood. Several words on the last 
page are partly faded and obliterated by a repaired tear. A spectacular 
find in Good to Very Good condition.    $8500.00

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