WARNER, Sylvia Townsend; and Valentine ACKLAND.

WHETHER A DOVE OR A SEAGULL Poems by [ ... ].

New York: The Viking Press, 1933. First American edition, preceded UK edition by one year. Hardcover. Octavo. Publisher's black cloth spine in gilt, red cloth boards. [8], 3-153, [1] pp. Near fine copy, with bright unmarked boards and text block, housed in the original printed and patterned dust jacket with some chips and a loss at the crown of the spine; front and rear panels well-preserved with bright red topography. An index to the first lines and titles appears at the conclusion of the poems.

A poetry collection of 109 poems, marking the literary and romantic partnership of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland. The poems were deliberately published without individual attributions to test whether critics could distinguish between their voices (a note on the dust jacket panel indicates that specific authorship could be requested from the publisher). A note by the poets before the text of the poems indicates the lack of attribution was "an experiment in the presentation of poetry and a protest against the frame of mind, too common, which judges the poem by the poet, rather than the poet by the poem." The later UK edition provided an index linking each poem to the poet. Near fine / Very good. Item #890

Price: $300.00