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.