HEANEY, Seamus. District and Circle (Signed limited edition)

London: Faber and Faber, 2006. First limited edition. pp. 86. Fine in the original quarter black morocco over oatmeal cloth boards, spine lettered in gilt on cream label. A handsome production, issued without dust jacket, as published. One of 300 numbered copies signed by Heaney, this being number 87.

A particularly desirable signed limited edition of Seamus Heaney’s final collection published before his death, containing some of the poet’s most celebrated late works including “Anything Can Happen”, “The Tollund Man in Springtime”, “The Blackbird of Glanmore”, and the title poem “District and Circle”. The collection reflects Heaney’s mature meditations on mortality, memory, classical literature, travel, and Irish identity, and is widely regarded as one of the strongest achievements of his later career.

Published in the year Heaney received the T. S. Eliot Prize for the collection, the limited issue was produced in a far smaller edition than the trade printing and remains increasingly scarce on the market, particularly in such fine condition. Signed limited editions of Heaney’s later works continue to attract strong collector interest internationally, especially those issued during the poet’s lifetime in elegant bindings by Faber and Faber.

An excellent example of one of the key late publications by the Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney.

[L3 8D]