Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
17.3 x 14.7cm, 2pp card. The card has a drawing of various classical structures overlaid - the title of Little Sparta which corresponds to Finlay's name for his own farm clearly marks the building, gardens and grounds at Dunsyre as neo-classical. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1989)
7.3 x 8.2cm, 4pp artist's card with two texts -
on the left "as in rat-a-0tat" and on the right "Order is repetition".
The card is "dedicated" to Yves Hayat who had been a friend to the artist but attacked him after the Catherine Millet accused Finlay of being fascistic because he included a swastika in one of his works. The rat-a-tat clearly references shooting from a machine gun - and (metaphorically) Hayat is being murdered by words. VG+. ...
Edinburgh: Morning Star Publications, 1989
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp card. The card has a drawing by Stephen Duncalf of small aircraft parked on grass. A fete champetre is an outdoor entertainment (like a garden party) so the visual poem likens the rather makeshift airport to such an event. One of 1,000 copies printed. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. 6 x 9.6cm, 1pp artist's card printed black on green card with a text discussing the difference between a poems subject ("about a thing") and the poem itself (which IS a thing). Semiology for beginners. VG+....
Little Sparta: Committee of Public Safety/Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1989)
2.8 x 21.6cm, 4pp. Artist's card with a text:
1989: BICENTERNAIRE DE LA REVOLUTION FRANCAISE
1990: LA LIBERTE DE CELEBRER 1789.
The year after most people define the beginning after the French Revolution the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789) was passed by the National Constituent Assembly thus giving citizens the right of free speech. Finlay's card celebrates that occasion which is usually ignored - putting it on an equal status as a highlight of world history. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
11.4 x 8.9cm, 4pp. Artist's card with a drawing of an abstracted moorland/estuary (very similar to the colourful images used in From 35 One Line Poem postcards published earlier by Finlay - and the text "Birds fly, Waterfoul Ply" - one having the air above the water, the other the water and the moorland but the latter being compared to boats "plying" their trade. Strictly speaking ply means to move regularly over an area or to work steadily - something both boats and land birds tend to do. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
12.8 x 20.3, 2pp card. The card has an appropriated drawing of a hunt in full chase - the hare has the name De Mann over it. Paul de Mann was an important literary critic who alongside Derrida popularised the concept of deconstruction. Finlay WAs clearly no fan. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988.
83 x 10.8cm, 4pp - the Xmas card sent out by Finlay in 1988 to friends and clients. The card bears a poem:
A FRAGMENT
When bare black hedgerows
Wear white shadows
And the fields without snow
Face the fire:
a rug
The white shadows are the plumes of snow on the branches and the fields without snow is a visual correspondence of the rug. The other sides of the card are blank - or white like snow. VG+. Scarce....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
5 x 9.7cm, 4pp. Artist's card with a text:
A definition for Michel Blum
Ambiguous, n. of doubtful meaning. Of doubtful meaning.
A card attacking Blum for his absurd claims that Finlay was anti-semitic. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1988?) 21 x 15cm, 4pp folded card with two small vignettes by Kathleen Lindsley and a quotation from J.J. Rousseau's Confessions about how the writer walked to Vincennes and had an epiphany. Vincennes is now a part of larger Paris but it was a small town (where De Sade was briefly imprisoned) at the time (1749). VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1988) 3.9 x 9.7cm, 4pp artist card with the text: "SAINT-JUST VIGILANTES, WATCH THIS SPACE!" on the front, on the back of the card near the fold there is an additional text" "HIRSCHFELD, BLUM, HAYAT, WATCH THIS EDGE!". The way that the fold is on the card is reminiscent of a guillotine so the card becomes a threat to Finlay's enemies. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. News from England: A gerbil was elected Grand Secretary of the University of East Anglia Student Union, and Waldemar Januszczak was appointed Literary Editor of the Guardian." and printed black on red. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...