THE WILD HAWTHORN WONDER BOOK OF BOATS. 1975.

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
15.2 x 10cm, 30pp plus printed wrappers. Woodcuts by Martin Fidler are mostly visual puns using simple blocks of red and green along with word poems by Finlay. An aircraft carrier has its planes inside the hull in red - Finlay just places the single word PIP under them comparing the carrier to a gourd or shell. Another boat is called a "Sabot" which is based on the shape like an upturned clog. A submarine is "Bubbles".
VG+.

A MAST OF HANKIES. 1975.

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
14.7 x 10.5cm, printed outer folder in orange with nine 14.5 x 10cm, 1pp postcards inside. Each card has a photograph by Dave Paterson of Finlay's toy boats in water, reeds and other outdoor situations. Below each photograph is a poem by Finlay in a rhyming scheme which tell the tales of the adventures of the boats and their owner as well as copious remarks on their structures including the ubiquitous handkerchief sails. Is this an artist's book or a collection of artist's postcard - debatable but we have kept it with the books because of the linked stories. VG+.

THE AXIS. 1975.

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
11 x 11.2cm, 16pp (self cover). Drawings of tanks and war planes by Alexander Finlay (later Alex Finlay) from when he was young with short text works by Finlay that reflect the imagery.
Nocturne has a drawing of a man parachuting from a plane - Finlay's text shows the words "schräge musik" with two dots being repeated op the page diagonally. Schräge Musik was the German term for an autocannon that the Luftwaffe mounted in fighters but was also the contemporary German colloquialism for shaky, off-tune music ie slanted or oblique music. The slant of the text reflects that origin as a well as the way the bullets tragectory.
A very scarce Finlay book and charming in the way his son was involved in the production. Later Alex Finlay would publish many books - we think this was his first. VG+.

TEXTBOOKLET 1. 1975.

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
10 x 5.2cm, 18pp (printed on one side only) accordion fold.
The first of three such "textbooklet"s which have similar formats. Here three texts are all displayed vertically: "Concrete effect?", "Crossword effect?" and "Weather effect?".
Finlay is playing with the three reasons why text might be shown in such an unusual manner - the concrete poem that uses verticality in many ways including inferring direction and falling, the crossword which needs vertical text to allow the words to be, well, crossed, and the weather where rain and snow falls and is a direct reference to the famous (and one of the first ever concrete poems) by Apollinaire "Il pleut" which Finlay knew well as he later parodied it in an artist's card. VG+.

THE BOY’S ALPHABET BOOK. 1976.

Toronto: Couch House Press, 1976
19.6 x 20.2cm , 60pp plus blue card covers. An A-Z of pictures of Finlay's model boats, airplanes, weapons and kites by Paterson along with an alphabet - B is "Battle fleets are like families" shows a number of warships placed in size order like a bad family portrait. Not all of the texts are poetic - some simply describe the toys.
One of 1,000 copies printed this example is VG+.

IMITATIONS VARIATIONS REFLECTIONS COPIES. 1976. ONE OF 350 SIGNED & NUMBERED COPIES.

Dunsyre, : Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976 12 x 11cm,28pp plus card wrappers and printed blue dust jacket. Artist's book displaying two b/w photogrpahs of sculptural works in stone (both war planes) by John Andrews and nine poems by Finlay including:

UNTITLED
after Aram Saroyan

LOTS
lots

Aram Saroyan is an American minimalist poet. The word LOTS plays in opposition to the form. Finlay's poem hints at the complexity found in Saroyan's poems despite their (relative) lack of words or even letters.
This is one of 350 signed and numbered copies. VG+.

HEROIC EMBLEMS. 1977. ONE OF 50 SIGNED & NUMBERED COPIES.

Calais, Vermont: Z Press, 1977 23 x 15cm, 54pp plus card covers. First edition of this artist's book designed by Ron Costley and with a commentary by Stephen Bann. The emblems are all drawings of military machines such as tanks or battle ships acting as metaphors associated with Greek mythology:

SEMPRE FESTINA LENTE
HASTEN SLOWLY

is associated with a Sherman tank with a flail which was used to clear minefields - hence moving slowly in order to later move quickly.
This is one of only 50 copies signed and numbered by Finlay in black ink aside from the larger edition of 750 copies. Rare deluxe copy. VG+.

THE WILD HAWTHORN ART TEST. 1977.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
12.5 x 10.3cm, 16pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book with drawings by Martin Fidler with questions by Finlay as if the reader is sitting a test on modern art.
Question 5 reads:" Write a short essay on the theme: The role of the non-flying glider in Post-19th Century non-representational art".
One significant part of Duchamp's Large Glass was called by the latter the "Glider" for instance. We believe we could pass Finlay's test.
VG+ condition.

HOMAGE TO POUSSIN. 1977.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
13 x 13cm, 16pp plus card covers and printed dustjacket. Ten reproduced paintings of tanks with camouflage some in vegetation by John Borg Manduca are joined with short legends by Finlay.
1. "To do Poussin over again, for the sake of the War God." abuts a tank with its muzzle pointed right at the reader.
another reads:
6. Pure Cannon Law. Which is a pun on the homophone Cannon - a canon law being an ecclesiastical law.
Unusually there are adverts for other Finlay book on the flaps of the dust jacket. VG+.

TRAILBLAZERS. 1978

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
7.0 x 9.5cm, 28pp plus printed card covers. Drawings of early planes based on vintage models by C. Tissiman are joined with their model names ascribed to famous artists, poets and composers such as Warhol, Betjeman and Maxwell.
"Waco Yoc" is suggestde as being by Kust Schwitters presumably because of the latter's interest in sound poetry while "Fokker D" is given to Andy Warhol - possibly because of its mass production in German factories. But it is hard to know all of the associations of the names for Finlay - was Bücker Bestmann assigned to John Betjeman just because of the similarity in names (Betjeman comes from St Benjamin apparently)? However the book title "Trailblazers" suggests that Finlay is saying these artists are foremost and revolutionary - which given his enemy Hugh McDiarmid is included is a little surprising (although I guess Finlay had to accept McDiarmid's role in re-popularising Scottish poetry even if they were no longer friends although McDiarmid had been Finlay's best man at his first marriage). VG+ condition.

WOODS. 1978.

Firenze: Zona, n.d. (1978)
21 x 15cm, 4pp (self cover) no binding. The four sheets with calligraphy by Ron Costley read:
white & bark, black & light, bark & light, white & dark and black& white
The combinations of the words (with the basic structure taken from the last coupling "black and white") along with the title "Woods" create visual images of different woodland scenes (each, of course, will be personal to the reader but in the main bark and light may bring the outside of a Birch tree to mind for instance). Finlay uses this trick of word transposition often in works - the changes causes by minimal alterations to words and their syntax interests him greatly. He feels that small changes in letters or word-combination causes large changes to their meaning or their perceived meaning.
This was published by Maurizio Nannucci of Zona Archives, himself a concrete poet. VG+.

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHS. 1979.

London: Coracle Press, 1979
21 x 19cm. 40pp plus card covers with tipped on self-portrait. First edition of William's photographs of poets and artists with reminiscences. There are 30 tipped in colour reproductions including William Carlos Williams, Myrna Loy, Herbert Read, Allen Ginsberg, David Hockney, Dorothy Brett as well as Ian Hamilton Finlay. One of 1800 numbered copies. VG+.

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