AUDEN, W. H.
The Shield of Achilles.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. New York: Random House, 1955.
Signed by Auden on the title page in his characteristic manner — the printed "W. H. Auden" struck through, his ink signature beneath. Octavo. 84 pp. Tan cloth spine over blue paper-covered boards, in the publisher's dust jacket (priced $3.00). Near fine, with a previous-owner name, sunning to the board edges, and offsetting from a news clipping at pages 52–53; in a very good dust jacket with age toning, some wear to the extremities, and a small loss at the spine head affecting the "Th" of the title.
One of the central books of Auden's American years, gathering verse written between 1951 and 1954 and dedicated to Lincoln and Fidelma Kirstein. The collection is in three parts: the Bucolics sequence on the elements of landscape (Winds, Woods, Mountains, Lakes, Islands, Plains, Streams); a middle group titled In Sunshine and In Shade, which carries the title poem itself; and the Horae Canonicae sequence, Auden's reworking of the canonical hours of monastic prayer.
SKU TO-2026-112
