HUGHES, Ted. Cave Birds: An Alchemical Cave Drama.

HUGHES, Ted. Cave Birds: An Alchemical Cave Drama.HUGHES, Ted. Cave Birds: An Alchemical Cave Drama. New York: The Viking Press. 1978. Oblong 8vo. Publishers black cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, illustrated dust jacket with printed price of $14. 95 to front flap; pp. 60, [4], with full page black and white illustrations by Baskin throughout; extremities a little rubbed, a couple short tears to edges of wrapper, a few very light spots to endpapers, else near fine; authorial inscription For Nick

HUGHES, Ted. Cave Birds: An Alchemical Cave Drama. New York: The Viking Press. 1978.

Oblong 8vo. Publisher’s black cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, illustrated dust-jacket with printed price of $14.95 to front flap; pp. 60, [4], with full-page black-and-white illustrations by Baskin throughout; extremities a little rubbed, a couple short tears to edges of wrapper, a few very light spots to endpapers, else near fine; authorial inscription ‘For Nick / with love / from Ted / Christmas 1997’ in black ink to front free endpaper (see below).

First US edition, first impression, inscribed by the author, with twenty-nine illustrations of birds by American sculptor and draughtsman Leonard Baskin (1922–2000).

Cave Birds was first performed in 1975 at the Ilkley Literature Festival, three years before its first appearance in print. The long poem, along with Baskin’s strikingly evocative drawings, combine to make a gripping drama of ritual, transformation, and avian myth. Baskin had previously provided the iconic dust-jacket design for Hughes’ Crow (1970). Cave Birds was their most sustained and intense collaboration, in 1974.

Provenance: From the library of Nick Grant (d. 2018). Grant and Hughes were close friends and spent much time fishing together.

SKU: 2121064