[Rarebooks] FS: Scarce Juvenilia Autograph 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.
$8,500.00         011818
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