HOLDERLIN’S MADNESS. 1938.

London: Dent & Co, 1938

19 x 13cm, 48 pp, cloth covered boards with dustjacket. First edition of Gascoyne’s biographical study of Johann Christian Friedrich Holderlin (March 20, 1770 – June 6, 1843) the German lyric poet. Written when the British surrealist was still only 22, this study of another poet was one of two books that made Gascoyne’s reputation (the other being Man’s Life is This Meat  (1936), which collected his early surrealist work and translations of French surrealists).

This copy is a little browned at edges, has a previous owner’s signature and a little spotting to endpapers, otherwise a very good copy with the scarce dust jacket still mostly intact: it has been repaired after some damage and is also somewhat browned at edges. Specifically the dustjacket has a paper lack at both top and base of spine (approx 1.5cm and 4cm) and at some time the front panel has become detached from spine, but has been restored to an acceptable standard. Nonetheless this is a scarce publication usually only encountered (if at all) with the dj missing.