The Penguin Poets: D.H. Lawrence 1954 Edition
D. H. LAWRENCE — SELECTED POEMS
The Penguin Poets | 1954 Reprint | Chosen & Introduced by W. E. Williams
A charming early Penguin Poets edition of the poetry of D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930), one of the most influential and provocative English writers of the twentieth century. This selection was chosen and introduced by W. E. Williams and brings together poems revealing a side of Lawrence sometimes overshadowed by his famous novels.
The edition was first published by Penguin Books in 1950. Importantly, the publication page of this particular copy states “Reprinted 1954,” making this a 1954 vintage reprint, not the 1950 first Penguin edition. Later Penguin printings of the same Williams-edited selection are also recorded, confirming its long life within the series.
About the Poetry
Although Lawrence is best known for novels such as Sons and Lovers, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, poetry formed an important part of his literary career. His published poetry stretches from Love Poems and Others in 1913 through collections including Amores, Look! We Have Come Through!, Birds, Beasts and Flowers, Pansies and the posthumous Last Poems.
Lawrence’s poetry is intensely observant and often intimate, moving between love, sexuality, nature, animals, human relationships, mortality and the modern world. His poems are particularly admired for their immediacy and their ability to transform encounters with the natural world into meditations on human emotion.
This volume opens with Lawrence’s earlier rhyming poems, including Dog-Tired, shown in the photographs, before moving through a broader selection of his verse.
Book Details
Title: Selected Poems
Author: D. H. Lawrence
Selected & Introduced by: W. E. Williams
Series: The Penguin Poets
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
In association with: William Heinemann Ltd
First Penguin publication: 1950
This edition: 1954 reprint
Format: Vintage paperback
Original price: Two Shillings & Sixpence (2/6)
Printer: Hunt, Barnard and Co. Ltd., London and Aylesbury
Printed in: Great Britain
Language: English
Genre: Poetry / English Literature / Modernist Literature
Classic Early Penguin Design
The book retains the wonderfully restrained Penguin Poets green ornamental cover design, with its decorative botanical border, elegant typography and small Penguin device.
The original “Two Shillings & Sixpence” price remains visible on the front, giving the book an especially appealing period character. For collectors of vintage Penguins, these early series designs are often as much a part of their appeal as the texts themselves.
Condition
Vintage pre-owned condition. Considering that this copy dates from 1954, it presents attractively. The covers show expected age toning, light rubbing, marks and wear around the edges and corners. There is some visible wear/marking to the lower portion of the rear cover.
The internal pages show the warm toning characteristic of vintage Penguin paperbacks but appear clean and readable in the photographs. Please refer to all photographs for the exact condition of this individual copy.
Collectors’ Interest
This is not the 1950 first Penguin printing, so it should be listed accurately as the 1954 reprint. The original 1950 Penguin edition is itself now encountered on the collectors’ market, and later editions of this selection remained in print for years.
The combination of D. H. Lawrence, the Penguin Poets series, its early-1950s publication date and beautifully preserved period cover design makes this a particularly attractive vintage literary collectible.
Why We Love It at Owl Books
There is a wonderful simplicity to early Penguin poetry books. This small volume has survived for more than seventy years while retaining the understated green-and-cream design that made Penguin books so distinctive.
For readers who know Lawrence primarily through his novels, Selected Poems also offers another way into his work—more personal, lyrical and closely connected to the natural world.
A lovely find for a D. H. Lawrence reader, poetry lover, vintage Penguin collector or collector of mid-century British books.