For the Time Being
- 124 pp. 1 vols. Small 8vo
- London: Faber and Faber, 1945
London: Faber and Faber, 1945. First London edition (preceded by the Random House edition of 1944). 124 pp. 1 vols. Small 8vo. Brick cloth. Fine copy in dust jacket. First London edition (preceded by the Random House edition of 1944). 124 pp. 1 vols. Small 8vo. Fine copy of the Faber edition, which includes a substantial little essay on Auden by T.S. Eliot on the front flap, 44 lines concluding “we think that this is the best book (leaving his dramatic work out of account) that the author has produced since The Orators.”
The authorship of this blurb is confirmed by the survival of a draft on the verso of a letter from Eliot to Faber designer Berthold Wope in January 1945, but is not recorded by bibliographers. Auden and Eliot are the two great Anglo-American poets of the mid-twentieth century. When asked whether he was finally American or English, T.S. Eliot remarked “whichever Mr. Auden is, I am not”.
A nice copy of an important book. Bloomfield & Mendelson A26
The authorship of this blurb is confirmed by the survival of a draft on the verso of a letter from Eliot to Faber designer Berthold Wope in January 1945, but is not recorded by bibliographers. Auden and Eliot are the two great Anglo-American poets of the mid-twentieth century. When asked whether he was finally American or English, T.S. Eliot remarked “whichever Mr. Auden is, I am not”.
A nice copy of an important book. Bloomfield & Mendelson A26