Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), Nobel Laureate, poet, essayist and playwright, born in County Derry and brought up on a small farm between Toomebridge and Castledawson. After graduation from Queen’s University, Belfast he taught for a year at St. Thomas’s Intermediate School in that city, where Michael MacLaverty, the headmaster, encouraged his writing; he then became a lecturer at St. Joseph’s Teacher Training College. While there he participated in the poetry group organised by Philip Hobsbaum at QUB, where he was appointed to the English Department in 1966.
Seamus Heaney was born near Castledawson, County Derry, and grew up on his father’s small farm. He was the eldest in a Catholic family of nine children.
In 1961 Heaney graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast, where he also became a lecturer at Queen’s University before Harvard College in Boston. Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.
In 1981 Heaney accepted a post as Visiting Professor at Harvard where in 1984, he was elected Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Poetry. The T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures at Canterbury in 1986 were published with other critical writings as ‘The Government of the Tongue’ (1988) – a title which underlines Heaney’s conviction that poetry is a form of responsible government.
According to Heaney, poetry balances the “scales of reality towards some transcendent equilibrium”. From the early collections, Heaney has combined in his work personal memories with images of Irish heritage and the landscape of Northern Ireland.
‘The Death of a Naturalist’ is the first regularly published book by the Nobel Prize-winning poet. It consists of 34 short poems and is largely concerned with childhood experiences and the formulation of adult identities, family relationships, and rural life. The collection begins with one of Heaney’s best-known poems, ‘Digging’, and includes the acclaimed ‘Death of a Naturalist’.
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HEANEY, Seamus The Last Walk [SIGNED BY THE PUBLISHER] Illustrated by Martin Gale. Oldcastle: Gallery Press, 2013. Medium octavo. First edition, first printing. Green linen, title blind-stamped on upper cover. One of 575 numbered copies, of which 500 are for sale. Signed by the publisher Peter Fallon. A fine copy in fine acetate dust jacket. Published posthumously, the book is a translation by Seamus […] €375.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus: Beowulf HEANEY, Seamus. Beowulf. A Verse Translation. Illustrated by Becca Thorne. 122 London: The Folio Society, 2010. pp. 218. Quarter maroon morocco on dark red cloth with gilt interlacing decorative desigh, title and author in gilt on spine; maroon endpapers and endbands. Top edge gilt. A fine copy in slipcase. “The great relic of English literature […] €475.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus: Beowulf. [SIGNED] Beowulf. Translated by Seamus Heaney. London: Faber and Faber, 1999. First edition. pp. xxx, 106. Dark blue paper boards, title in gilt on spine. Signed by Seamus Heaney on titlepage. A fine copy in dust jacket. The great relic of English literature is the epic ‘Beowulf’. The poem is in West Saxon but was originally […] €575.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus: District and Circle. [SIGNED] London: Faber and Faber, 2006. First edition. Green paper boards. Signed by Seamus Heaney on titlepage. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. Seamus Heaney was born near Castledawson, County Derry, and grew up on his father’s small farm. He was the eldest in a Catholic family of nine children. Heaney attended St. Columb’s College, […] €475.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus: Electric Light [Signed Edition] London: Faber, 2001. First. pp. [x], 81. First edition. pp. [x], 81. Black paper boards, titled in white. Signed by Seamus Heaney. A fine copy of the first edition in fine dust jacket. Seamus Heaney (b.1939), poet, essayist and playwright, born in Co. Derry and brought up on a small farm between Toomebridge and Castledawson. […] €545.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus: Poems and a Memoir. [SIGNED LIMITED EDITION] Selected and illustrated by Henry Pearson with an introduction by Thomas Flanagan and a preface by Seamus Heaney. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1982. First edition. Imperial octavo. pp. xviii, 153. Limited edition, signed by Seamus Heaney, Henry Pearson, and Thomas Flanagan. Bound in full brown morocco. Upper cover tooled in blind with an Ogham […] €950.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus: Station Island. New York: Farrer, Straus, Giroux, 1985 First American Edition. Quarter linen on cream paper boards. Signed presentation copy from Seamus Heaney, in Irish and English, dated 4th March, 1985. Also with two verses in Heaney’s own hand “for Stephen / Seamus / 4th March 1985”. A fine copy in fine illustrated dust jacket after a […] €1,250.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Beowulf [First Edition] Translated by Seamus Heaney. 130 London: Faber and Faber, 1999. First edition. pp. xxx, Dark blue papered boards, title in gilt on spine. Small paper label on spine. A fine copy in pictorial dust jacket. The great relic of English literature is the epic ‘Beowulf’. The poem is in West Saxon but was originally composed […] €95.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Death of a Naturalist London: Faber and Faber, 1966. Demy octavo. First edition, third impression, published in the same year as the first. pp. 57. Blue-green cloth, title in gilt on spine. Jacket not price-clipped. Original dust jacket with a few nicks, otherwise a fine copy in near fine dust jacket. Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), Nobel Laureate, poet, essayist and […] €375.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Death of a Naturalist [Amended Edition 2016] London: Faber and Faber, 2016. Black cloth, title in gilt on spine. A fine copy in fine dustjacket. Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), Nobel Laureate, poet, essayist and playwright, born in County Derry and brought up on a small farm between Toomebridge and Castledawson. Afrer graduation from Queen’s University, Belfast he taught for a year at St. […] €25.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. District and Circle London: Faber and Faber, 2006. pp. [ix], 113. First edition. Green papered boards, title in gilt along spine. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. L3 8E €95.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Door into the Dark [First Edition] London: Faber and Faber, 1969. First edition. pp. 56. Black linen, title in gilt on spine.. A fine copy in very good dust jacket. Previous owner’s signature present. Heaney still has the gift of finding a new and consummate phrase to evoke physical qualities, and when these take on a symbolic resonance the result is […] €275.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Electric Light. LIMITED EDITION SIGNED BY SEAMUS HEANEY. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. First edition. pp. [x], 81. Quarter black linen on cream paper boards, title on printed paper label on spine. Limited to 300 copies, numbered and signed by Seamus Heaney. A fine copy in slipcase. €950.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Field Work. London: Faber and Faber, 1979. Demy octavo. First edition, first impression. pp. 64. Purple papered boards, titled in gilt. Signed by Seamus Heaney on titlepage. A fine copy in fine dust jacket with usual fading to spine. Price-clipped. In ‘Field Work’ (1979), many of the poems are elegiac, dealing with the personal loss of friends […] €675.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Hailstones Edited by Peter Fallon. 89 LIMITED EDITION Dublin, Gallery Books, 1984. Edition limited to 750 copies. First. pp. 24. Blue printed wraps. Fine. A scarce and attractive item. L3 8E €125.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Human Chain London: Faber and Faber, 2010. pp. [8], 85. First edition. Brown paper boards. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. L3 8E €125.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Human Chain [SIGNED BY SEAMUS HEANEY] London: Faber and Faber, 2010. Demy octavo. pp. [8], 85. First edition. Brown papered boards, title in gilt on spine. Signed by Seamus Heaney on the title-page. A ‘Foyles Signed First Edition’ sticker to the lower front cover. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. The Nobel Laureate’s last collection of poetry published before his […] €850.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. North London: Faber and Faber, 1975. First edition. pp. 73. Pale blue wrappers with an illustration of a Viking ship on upper cover, title in black on spine. Ex libris Glenstal Abbey with stamp. A good copy. Brandes & Durkan. This true first edition, first printing (first impression) with no reprint statement to the copyright page […] €750.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Robert Henryson. The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables. Translated by Seamus Heaney. 120 LIMITED EDITION SIGNED. London: Faber and Faber, 2009. First edition. Quarter blue linen on papered boards, title on printed label on spine. Limited edition of 110 copies, of which 100 are for sale. Signed by Seamus Heaney. A fine copy in slipcase. €950.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. Sweeney Astray [Signed First Edition] A Version from the Irish by Seamus Heaney. Derry: A Field Day Publication, 1983. First edition. Greyish-white rexine boards, drawing by Colin Middleton in black on upper cover, title in black on spine. Signed and dated by Seamus Heaney. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. A splendid version from the Irish by this acclaimed […] €775.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. The Burial at Thebes. Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’. SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. HEANEY, Seamus. The Burial at Thebes. Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’. SIGNED LIMITED EDITION London: Faber and Faber, 2004. First edition. pp. [vii], 56. Quarter maroon linen on gold papered boards, title in gilt on background on spine. Edition limited to 250 numbered copies for sale, signed by Seamus Heaney. A fine copy in slipcase. Heaney’s translation of […] €575.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. The Government of the Tongue The 1986 T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures and Other Critical Writings. London: Faber and Faber, 1988. Demy octavo. First edition. pp. xxiii, 172. Red papered boards, title in silver on spine. Inscribed and signed by Seamus Heaney for Robert Hamlin, dated 16 September, 1988. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. In 1981 Heaney accepted a […] €495.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. The Haw Lantern. SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. HEANEY, Seamus. The Haw Lantern. 133 SIGNED LIMITED EDITION New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987. First American edition. pp. 51, [1]. Maroon cloth, titled in gilt on black background along spine. Limited edition of 250 copies, signed and numbered by Seamus Heaney. A fine copy in fine slipcase. €575.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. The Spirit Level London and Boston: Faber and Faber, 1998. pp. [x], 70. Pictorial wrappers. A fine copy. L3 8E €25.00 |
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HEANEY, Seamus. The Tree Clock Belfast: Linen Hall Library, 1990. pp. 28. Edition limited to 870 copies. Beige linen, title in blind on upper cover. Celtic design on endpapers. Fine in fine d.j. with title printed in gilt. L3 8E €275.00 |
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