The King of Asine and Other Poems

First edition in English. 8vo. 82pp. Red buckram, lettered and stamped in gilt to black panel on spine. With a frontispiece line drawing of the author by Ghika. Jacket design by Keith Vaughan. Translated by Bernard Spencer, Manos Valaoritis [and] Lawrence Durrell; with an introduction by Rex Warner.

Dustjacket rubbed, tanned and chipped to edges with some loss to crown of spine, else Near Fine.

Author's first poetry collection to be published in English to "rather restricted sale[s], but quite extraordinarily interesting and appreciative reviews," according to John Lehmann in a letter to Seferis dated, 19 November 1947. Originally published privately in autograph form in 317 numbered copies in Logbook I, Athens, (1940), its composition spanning the summer of 1938 to January 1940. The English publication was followed by Poems in 1960 by Little Brown, for which Seferis was awarded the Foyle Prize for poetry (the first time it was awarded to a non-English poet). Recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Literature. "[A] very great work." –Lawrence Durrell