IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

PAGE WORKS & CONTRIBUTIONS

XEROX COPY OF “PILLS” FROM THE GLASGOW HERALD. ORIGINALLY 1955.

42 x 30cm, 1pp b/w xerox copy of the original short story found in the Glasgow Herald in 1958. This was one of Finlay's first published works (along with others in the same newspaper). At this time the Glasgow Herald was a regional newspaper and carried prose and poetry in its pages. Finlay's short story tells the tale of a middle class doctor visiting an older woman in her house after she has had a heart issue. The doctor is surprised by things he sees (a baby pig being nursed in a drawer is one) and how clean everything is. He warns the wife not to get up on any account and sits the shepherd down to tell him the same of his wife before leaving. The final scene is the shepherd calling on his wife to get up and make dinner.
Finlay was a shepherd for a while in Orkney.
It is near impossible to find a copy of this specific newspaper now because even the large suppliers of past issues did not cover regional papers.

XEROX COPY OF “A BROKEN ENGAGEMENT” FROM THE GLASGOW HERALD. ORIGINALLY 1955.

30 x 42cm, 1pp b/w xerox copy of the original short story found in the Glasgow Herald in 1955. This was one of Finlay's first published works (along with others in the same newspaper). At this time the Glasgow Herald was a regional newspaper and carried prose and poetry in its pages. Finlay's short story is told from the perspective of a young child from a middle class family who has a maid. The maid is first courted by a young man (who the child is slightly jealous of) and then the engagement called off with the maid left upset but the child is happy he can get her to draw faces for him again at night. Finlay did come from such a background in the Bahamas but his father lost the family money in a poor investment and Finlay returned to Scotland.
It is near impossible to find a copy of this specific newspaper now because even the large suppliers of past issues did not cover regional papers.

XEROX COPY OF “THE POTATO FIELD” FROM THE GLASGOW HERALD. ORIGINALLY 1955.

XEROX COPY OF “THE BUNCH OF GRAPES” FROM THE GLASGOW HERALD. ORIGINALLY 1955.

42 x 30cm, 1pp b/w xerox copy of the original short story found in the Glasgow Herald in 1955. This was one of Finlay's first published works (along with others in the same newspaper). At this time the Glasgow Herald was a regional newspaper and carried prose and poetry in its pages. Finlay's short story is of a manual road worker telling his subordinate to go and get grapes for him from the hut half a mile away. After several trips they go back together and the navvy shows the younger man that he wanted 'digging' grapes not 'eating' grapes, the difference being severe. The pub enjoys the story but the description of the different workers in the tavern is the real point of this story.
It is interesting that Finlay's story turns on the difference that the pronouns "digging: vs "eating" make to the noun grapes. Many of Finlay's later poetic works use that device to create subtle and not-subtle changes to meaning and the poetic images conjured up.
It is near impossible to find a copy of this specific newspaper now because even the large suppliers of past issues did not cover regional papers.

XEROX COPY OF “THE SADNESS OF CHRISTMAS” FROM THE GLASGOW HERALD. ORIGINALLY 1955.

30 x 42cm, 1pp b/w xerox copy of the original short story found in the Glasgow Herald in 1955. This was one of Finlay's first published works (along with others in the same newspaper). At this time the Glasgow Herald was a regional newspaper and carried prose and poetry in its pages. Finlay's short story is set in a bakers where the serving girl and a young man discuss the loss of Christmas innocence as adults (19 and 22!) and Finlay compares them to an "old man and woman smiling at a remote memory across the hearth".
It is near impossible to find a copy of this specific newspaper now because even the large suppliers of past issues did not cover regional papers.

XEROX COPY OF “THE BOY AND THE GUESS” FROM THE GLASGOW HERALD. ORIGINALLY 1958.

42 x 30cm, 1pp b/w xerox copy of the original short story found in the Glasgow Herald in 1958. This was one of Finlay's first published works (along with others in the same newspaper). At this time the Glasgow Herald was a regional newspaper and carried prose and poetry in its pages. Finlay's short story is of meeting a young boy near the sea edge and asking him to solve a riddle. The boy cannot despite several clues - which are all metaphors - and gives up. At the end the boy is excited to see a fishing boat come in and without the answer being given the riddle is solved for us. Excellent and with many themes of later work to come included. It is near impossible to find a copy of this specific newspaper now because even the large suppliers of past issues did not cover regional papers.

ORIGIN 6 FEATURING IAN HAMILTON FINLAY. 1962. WITH ONE OF FINLAY’S EARLIEST CONCRETE POEMS.

Kyoto: Cid Corman, 1962
21 x 15cm, 64pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from the second series of Cid Corman's important little magazine, features 21 pages of poems by Finlay with additional material from Robert Creeley, Thomas McNicholas, Lorine Niedecker, Louise Zukofsky, Michael McClure, and others. Finlay's letter to Corman is reproduced as a de facto foreword. twenty poems mostly traditional but one "The Pond of OO Farm (Rousay)" could be regarded as one of the artist's very earliest concrete poems and as a result makes this an important book. Most have annotations in print by Finlay.
This is a very scarce publication - only 300 copies were published. Slight sunning along spine else VG+.

APPROCHES. 1963.

Paris: Approchest, n.d. (1963)
20.5 x 13cm, 130pp plus original wrappers. A single number of a poetry journal edited by Julian Blaine and Jean-Francois Bory. The editors were aware of the growing changes in experimental poetry and here one finds Pierre Garnier, Jeff Nuttall, John Furnival, de Campos, de Vree, Blaine and Bory alongside Finlay's BROKEN HEART which can be found in Rapel.
The spine and wrappers here are attached but with tears - a bit fragile but a rare early Finlay international contribution and a sign of his growing reputation amongst his peers. Else VG.

UNTITLED. 1964?

N.p.: n.p., n.d. (1964?) Two stapled sheets - one 20.5 x 20.5cm, the other 25 x 20.5cm both black on yellow. An untitled broadside. The first has a work by dsh - Sonic Water - and the other works by ee cummings, Edwin Morgan, dsh, Ernst Jandl, Eugen Gomringer and Summer Vocabulary lesson by Finlay. The latter is a very early experimental poem:

1. Is the tea infished?
2. It is infished.
3. Suffishiently?
4. Suffishiently.
___________________
1. is it pouring? 2. It is pouring.
3. the rain is pouring.
4. May I pour?

The poem in two parts firstly discusses the tea pot and whether it was full but with a punny reference to fish, the second compares the pouring of the tea to rain.

CINQUIEME SAISON: (REVUE) OU No. 25 SPECIAL NUMBER 1965 BIENNALE DE PARIS. 1965.

Sceaux: Cinquieme Saison, 1965
27 x 26cm folder with a typographic cover designed by Henri Chopin (who was also the publisher and editor) and content of bound in artworks by Francois Dufrene, Jean-Jacques Leveque. Gabriel Paris, Dora Feilane, Henri Chopin, Serge Beguier, Gianni Bertini, Francoise Saint-Thibault, Laura Sheleen, John Giorno, Brion Gysin, Bernard Heidsieck, Les Aelys, Paul-Armand Gette, Alain Jouffroy, Jean-Clarence Lambert and Rodolfo Krasno. No record was included in this special number of OU released for the Biennale.
Finlay contributs one work which was not bound in but rather left loose in the pages so is often missing - STANDING POEM 2. (APPLE/HEART 2) from 1965. This is exactly the same card as the standing poem the Wild Hawthorn Press published and sold separately - one presumes Finlay just extended the print run.

One of 475 hand numbered examples on offset satin (after 50 de tete or Hors Commerce copies). One mark on cover and a diagonal crease but internally VG+ with VG++ Finlay card..

ROT. 21. 1965.

Stuttgart: Edition Rot, 1965
15 x 15cm, unpaginated (c. 48 pp.) plus original wrappers. A single number of this long running concrete and experimental poetry journal edited by Max Bense and Elisabeth Walther. This number has contributions by Finlay, Emmett Williams, Ladislaw Novák, Josef Hirsal, Bohumila Grögerová, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Eugen Gomringer, Gerhard Rühm, Åke Hodell, Franz Mon, Timm Ulrichs, Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Reinhard Döhl, Edgard Braga, Pedro Xisto, Jørgen Nash, Diter Rot, Pierre Garnier, et al.
The Finlay contribution is a lesser known work:

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RONDE DE TAFEL ELFDE JAARGANG NR 2/3. 1966.

Antwerpen: Paul de Vree, 1966 15 6.7cm, 86pp plus original wrappers with design. A single number of a poetry journal with emphasis on concrete and visual poetry. Edited by Paul de Vree (himself a poet) this has contributions from most of the active proponents of the genre including de vries, Blaine, Garniers, Gette, Chopin and, of course, Finlay.
Finlay has two pages - one with Standing Poem 2 and the other 4 sails. VG+.

FORM NR. 3. 1966.

Cambridge: Form Magazine, 1966 24 x 24cm, 32pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from series of magazines edited by Philip Steadman, Mike Weaver and Stephen Bann - here the third number which contains a section called "Poems by Ian Hamilton Finlay" which reproduced four works = Star/Steer, Purse-net Boat, Line Boats and the untitled but usually known as Planet. Interestingly the "circle" of Planet is placed more anti-clockwise than the print in Linea Sur of the same work (the reason may just be a mistake in layout in one of the publications). Purse-net Boa and Line Boats are less commonly found and there is an annotation by Finlay explaining that a Purse-seine is a "new kind of net that makes an actual ring arund the fish. It has been immensely profitable.".
Elsewhere there are works by Ernst Jandl, Paul de Vree, Kenneth Robinson and articles Charles Biederman, 'The Electrical -Mechanical Spectacle' by El Lissitzky., Great Little Magazines No 3: 'G' with work by Kurt Schwitters, Theo van Doesburg, Mies van der Rohe, and Miklos Bandi. VG+

Stephen Bann

LINES NR 23. 1967. WITH FIVE POEMS BY FINLAY.

Edinburgh: M. MacDonald, 1967 21.8 x 14.2cm, 48pp plus card covers. A single number (nr 23) of Alan Riddle's Scottish poetry magazine which includes a 10 page section on "Concrete Numbers". Poems by Tom Clark, Edwin Morgan and Riddle himself are presented along with five by Finlay: Funnel Geography (2), Line Boats, Purse-Net Boat, 2. From the Yard of Thomas Summers & co. and 3 Blue Lemons. Other traditional poetry is also included by Norman McCaig and Tom Buchan amongst others. VG+.

FORM NR 4. 1967.

Cambridge: Form Magazine, 1967 24 x 24cm, 32pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from series of magazines edited by Philip Steadman, Mike Weaver and Stephen Bann - here the fourth number which contains a notes, map and a detailed review of the Brighton Concrete Poetry Exhibition to which Finlay showed two major sculptural works - Sailors' cross and Purse-Net Poem. The former was c. 1.2m high and the latter 2.4 x 1m in side - both collaboraitons with Henry Clyne.
Otherwise there are articles on the Black Mountain College, Albers 'Graphic Tectonics', 'What is Kentetism' ?, two essays by Charles Biederman, poems by Anselm Hollo. a review of Mecano magazine.
This is more of a review of Finlay's contribution to the event rather than actual works included by Finlay but we have decided to place this in the Pageworks & Contributions section of this site because of Finlay's earlier contributions to the same magazine which was after all edited by his friend and often essayist Bann who had curated much of the Brighton show. VG+ example.

Ban

JAZZ POEMS. 1967. SECOND EDITION.

London: Vista Books, 1967 18 x 11.5cm, 48pp. Original card covers. Second edition. Anthology of poetry in which Finlay has two early poems (not concrete) here The Art Student and End of a Holiday . VG with mild wear to spine. The first edition was printed in 1963 and hence was an early Finlay contribution. VG.