A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle Macdiarmid, Hugh Poetry,Scottish Literature

MACDIARMID, Hugh. A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. Glasgow: Caledonian press 1953. With new author's notes to second edition. Introduction by David Daiches. Inscribed by the author: 'To/ my good friend/ Malcolm MacDonald/ from/ Hugh MacDiarmid/ Edinburgh. June 1954'. Slight crease in front and rear stiff card boards, otherwise a Very Good copy, in like Very Good dj, apart from some light scattered foxing not affecting book. Note: First published in 1926 this is the first reprinting of MacDiarmid's modernist masterpiece. The original issue from Blackwell's sold poorly. According to Blackwood s records, there were 525 copies in total (both primary and secondary bindings) printed. MacDiarmid claimed they struggled to sell any copies. Who knows how many were ultimately pulped and how many have survived nearly a century on earth? Even this second edition appears to be rare. The inscription is to, as MacDiarmid indicates, a friend the publisher Malcolm (Callum) MacDonald. Macdonald published pamphlets and books of poetry in Scots, Gaelic and English, written by his friends Robert Garioch, Hugh MacDiarmid and Sydney Goodsir Smith, using this company to subsidise his work. He set up the Lines Review poetry magazine in 1952 which ran until 1998, with Norman MacCaig, Sorley MacLean and the Denis Peplo joining Goodsir Smith and MacDiarmid on its editorial board. Important association copy.