4 BASKETS. 1990.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
9.8 x 9.3cm, 16pp and card wrappers and printed light green dust jacket. Drawings by Kathleen Lindsley of various baskets containing bread, wheat leaves and finally, heads are denoted as DOMESTIC, PASTORAL, PARNASSIAN and SUBLIME. Again Finlay sees the extremes of the Terror as somehow pure and homely even if evil.
Staples are a bit rusted else VG+.
FLAKES. 1990. SIGNED BY FINLAY.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
7.5 x 7.5cm, 32pp and card covers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book with 9 illustrations by Gary Hincks and three line poems by Finlay.
The texts all relate to winter in the countryside and could be read as a single work but really each stands alone.
foot
following
foot
is shown next to a painting of footprints in the snow.
the staples are rusty but this is a scarce item - only 250 copies were printed as Christmas gifts, else VG+. This example is signed by Finlay on the first blank paper in ink.
MYTHS. 1991.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
30.8 x 12cm, 200 plus card covers and green printed dustjacket. Artist's book based on various Greek myths. Finlay supplies six small one line poems each with a single repeated illustration by Solveig Hill - such as:
APHRODITE
Oil, in the air's cool jar.
and
CHLORIS
The birds awake the dawn.
VG+.
PICTURESQUE. 1991.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
8.2 x 10cm, 8pp with printed blue card covers. Picturesque was a style of painting which stressed the pretty and the kitsch and here Finlay cites in sarcastic terms the view that:
"It is hardly necessary to remark how the view from the house would be enlivened by the smoke of a cottage - " which is a direct quote from Humphry Repton the 18th century gardener and proponent of the style.
Finlay conjoins on the page opposite "- or a Picasso portrait by the inclusion of a recognisable pipe." which forces a modernity onto Repton's rather passe vision. VG+
DETACHED SENTENCES ON FRIENDSHIP. 1991.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991 10.0 x 6.8cm, 14pp plus wrappers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book with seven illustrations by Kathleen Lindsley and short proverb-like texts by Finlay, for example, "The wind roaring in the night is both stranger and friend." VG+ - although staples are a bit rusty.
SCUD. 1991.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1991)
9.2 x 7.6cm, 8pp plus card covers. Artist's book which has two definitions inside of the word Scud:
firstly, to sweep along easily and swiftly,: to drive before the wind: to traverse swiftly
and
to spank.
Finlay seems to have the idea of a boat moving quickly but also being forced along by its crew. VG+.
FOUR MONOSTICHS. 1991.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
10.6 x 16cm, 48pp plus card covers with printed dust jacket. Artist's book with four folded over pages that have one text on the outside that reveals the second text when opened.
Neoclassical Thaumaturgy
opens to
The gods fly faster than sound.
A monostich is a one line poem. VG+.
THE OLD STONYPATH HOY. 1991.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
21 x 15cm, 36pp with card covers and printed dust jacket. Image by Gary Hincks. The annual Christmas book publication by Finlay is here a collection illustrated short poems (most two-liners and most rhyming).
COUPLET
Doodlebug, doodlebug, where have you been?
- I've been to London to visit the Queen."
has a drawing of a V1 rocket bomb used during the blitz which was often called a "Doodlebug".
The staples are a little rusty else VG+.
PROSAIC PROVERBS. 1991.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
10.5 x 7.2cm, 12pp plus wrappers and printed dust jacket. Four "proverbs" by Finlay are illustrated with drawings by Kathleen Lindsley.
"The poor fisherman counts his diamonds" for instance depends on the drawing to explain the diamonds is a metaphor for silver-backed fish.
Very good condition apart from some minor rust on staples. Murrsay has this as 1992 but the book has 1991.
THE HAPPY CATASTROPHE. 1992.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
13.5 x 9.2cm, 4pp plus end papers and blue laid paper wrappers. The poem is as follows:
THE HAPPY CATASTROPHE
Be
falls.
and the explanation on the left "The happy catastrophe" - Friedrich Schlegel's characterisation of the French Revolution.
The word befalls is split as if part has dropped off or down but also is a physical reminder of a head falling from a body or the guillotine blade dropping down from above.
Slight former diagonal crease on cover but else VG.