Auction details
5:00 AM PT - Mar 1st, 2012
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Heaney (Seamus).- Thumbscrew, No.19, featuring interview with Seamus Heaney by Nick Gammage, original wrappers, small crease to lower corner of upper wrapper, Oxford, 2001; together with archive relating to the interview comprising mini-cassette recording of the interview, a first draft of the transcript, a rather faint fax of the first draft with extensive corrections in ink by Heaney, a second draft with a few further corrections in ink by Gammage, and a final version, plus 2 A.Ls.s., 1 T.L.s. & 5 A.Pcs.s. from Heaney to Gammage concerning the interview and other matters, a press release for Electric Light, and some other correspondence on Heaney's behalf, together loosely inserted in transparent sleeves in ring-binder file, 4to, 1988-2001. through, ".I read, I was haunted, I was moved and I wrote the guts of the poem more or less there on the bed...". He explains that the walking abroad image came from the Pentecost story when the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, ".so that part is an act of gratitude for Ted's work in the English tongue, and the fact that it released my own poetic tongue...".***In 2001 Seamus Heaney published Electric Light, relaunching Faber's poetry list. To coincide with this Gammage interviewed Heaney in London for the literary magazine Thumbscrew, for which Gammage reviewed poetry. The interview was published as a transcript of the tape recording and they discussed Heaney's first exposure to poetry, the healing qualities of poetry and music, his childhood, and of course the poems in Electric Light, paticularly the poem about Ted Hughes, 'On His Work in the English Tongue'. Heaney recounts that he was given a copy of the manuscript of Birthday Letters and that he lay down on his bed that afternoon and read it straight. ImagesClick on thumbnails to see larger images:
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