Collected poems. Ordinary edition. 8vo. Blue Cloth.

Component identifier:

Item 31-32

Content Summary:

Two copies, as follows.

(a) Presentation inscription on end paper signed "John Shaw Neilson". Inserted is autograph letter from Mrs Louise Dyer to Mrs B.M. Fowler. A pleasant letter written from London with mention of Neilson, Hugh McCrae and Jack Lindsay. Collected Poems and New Poems were dedicated to Mrs Dyer. It had been intended that Ballad and Lyrical Poems were to have been dedicated to her, but in the rush to get this book out prior to her departure for England, it was overlooked. So, both A.G.S. and Neilson made amends for their neglect with the two subsequent volumes. Tipped into this copy is a five page typescript by Mrs B.M. Fowler, giving her reminiscences of meetings with Shaw Neilson.

(b) Tipped on to end paper of this copy is typewritten poem by Mary Gilmore, with her autograph annotation. The poem is Shaw Neilson which appears in Under the Wilgas. She writes: "Among my letters in my collection at the Mitchell Library is one, an early one, in which he says that next to A.G.S., I was the one who first (or most) helped him. Mary Gilmore, 12.2.58". Inserted is letter from Neilson to Devaney about this book. The limited issue of 55 copies sold out almost immediately, but the ordinary issue dragged. His letter is dated 21 March 1937. "...I believe that Lothians have about 620 copies left...I know what a drug verse is." The first issue of the ordinary edition was of 1000 copies: it was later reprinted.

Names:

John Shaw Neilson

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