J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
P R E S E N T A T I O N C O P I E S & M A N U S C R I P T S
HUGHES TO HIS SON - THE DEDICATION COPY 36. HUGHES, Ted THE IRON MAN A Story in Five Nights Faber and Faber, 1968. First edition. Publisher’s paper covered boards illustrated by George Adamson in matching pictorial dustwrapper. A dedication copy, inscribed by Hughes to his son, Nicholas, “To Nicky / from Dad / 31st Jan 1968”. Illustrated in black and white by George Adamson. A fine copy in a fine dustwrapper, virtually perfect. [39444] £22,500 This book had its genesis as “a story I told my own children” (The Letters Of Ted Hughes, 2007), specifically, Nicholas and Frieda aged six and seven at the time of publication. They, along with their two year old half sister, Shura became the dedicatees of the book. It is now, “Ted’s best selling and best-loved work. It firmly established his place as one of the world’s leading children’s authors as well as one of its most admired poets.” (Jonathan Bate) The publication date was 26 February 1968, this copy being an advance copy, inscribed by Hughes nearly a month before publication. HUGHES TO AUNT HILDA WITH A DRAWING 37. HUGHES, Ted CROW From the Life and Songs of the Crow. Faber, 1970. First edition. Original black cloth in dustwrapper. Author’s presentation copy to his aunt Hilda Farrar, inscribed on the front free endpaper “To Hilda with lots of love from Ted 2nd Oct. 1970”, with a large drawing of a crow atop a bleak mountain at night. The dustwrapper design is by Leonard Baskin. A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper with a touch of tanning to the spine. [39100] £2,500 The inscription precedes the book’s publication on the 12 October 1970. Mostly written between 1966 and 1969, following a barren period after the suicide of Sylvia Plath, Crow marked a literary shift for Hughes, where he abandoned many of his previous poetic devices. Hughes would later
HUGHES TO UNCLE WALT 35. HUGHES, Ted THE HAWK IN THE RAIN Faber & Faber, 1957.
First edition. Blue cloth in printed dustwrapper. Author’s presentation copy, inscribed to his favourite uncle on the title page, “For Uncle Walt, with all my best, Ted.”. A near fine copy, with some foxing to the preliminary leaves and page edges, in a good dust - wrapper, which is also foxed with wear to the spine ends and corners. [39098] £3,500 The author’s first book. Ted Hughes grew up as part of a close and supportive family in Mytholm - royd. Most of the family worked in the farming and woollen industries. His uncles, Thomas and Walter, had established themselves as prominent local businessmen and owned a clothing factory, just round the corner from the Hughes family home on Aspinall Street. “Hughes was also close to his uncles Walter and Thomas, especially the former, the relationship between the two being characterized by Crossley [a childhood friend] and John Farrar as develop- ing into something akin to a father/son relationship...” - Steve Ely (Ted Hughes’s South Yorkshire) Walter encouraged Ted’s early interest in nature and animals, which was to manifest itself so profoundly in his poetry. He would take him and his brother Gerald on excursions on the moors. “Ted remembered one particular expedition to camp with his brother and their Uncle Walt in Hollins Valley as the most important single experience of his life up to the age of twenty-five. It remained so vividly in his memory that thirty years later he could remind Gerald that he only shot one rabbit on that occasion and that a small bird shot in a young tree had been pointed out to him by his uncle.” - Feinstein (Ted Hughes The Life of a Poet) In her short story, “All The Dead Dears”, Sylvia Plath bases the character uncle Jake, upon Walt Farrar.
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