[ Clifford Dyment, Anglo-Welsh poet. ] Corrected author's typescript of 'Fur, Feather, and Fin', co-written with wife Marcella Dyment, with copy of the Carrefour Press limited edition of the book, signed by him and illustrator Hafis, with extra plate

A friend of Dylan Thomas and a leading poet of the 1930s London literary scene, Dyment is the subject of a warm appreciation by Robert Graecen in The Times, 8 June 1971. The present collection consists of a series of amusing poems regarding various members of the animal kingdom. ONE: Typescript of 'Fur, Feather, and Fin | by | Clifford and Marcella Dyment'. Address at foot of title-page: 'Flat 5, 53, Harrington Gardens, London, S.W.7.' 46pp., 8vo. Internally in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Each page on a separate leaf, bound in a worn blue card folder with red spine, and damaged typed label on front cover. Undated, but clearly predating the Carrefour Press edition of 1968. A few pencil emendations by Dyment, including the renaming of the poem 'The Boa Constrictor' as 'The Python' (as in the Carrefour Press edition), and four lines not used in the published version of 'The Camel'. There are minor differences between the texts of the poems in the two versions, but the text of the typescript is preceded by a full-page 'Explanation and Extenuation' by the Dyments, not to be found in the published version, explaining the straitened circumstances in which the poems were written: '[...] we say, simply, that during a time of misery for us - small uncertain income, rising costs and prices, doctors, psychiatrists, the Rent Act, debts, bailiffs, the County Court - the writing of them diverted our minds from the overdose of sleeping tablets and the turned-on unlighted gas oven'. TWO: Limited edition of 'Fur, Feather, and Fin' by Clifford and Marcella Dyment, with illustrations by Hafis, Carrefour Press, London, 1968. Unbound and tied with red ribbon. Limited to 500 copies, 'Printed on Gladstonbury Crown Antique Pure White' paper, and one of the first hundred, signed by Dyment and Hafis, and with 'a special original plate signed by the artist' (depicting a vulture) tipped in behind a tissue guard at front. Mixture of calligraphic text (including front cover) by A. E. R. Larking and typescript. In addition to the extra plate, the volume contains twenty-two full-page illustrations by Hafis (including one on back cover), as well as full-page photographs of the Dyments, and full-page appreciations of the authors and artist by Daphne Fraenkel. Uncommon: it is doubtful that the stated five hundred copies were all printed. Of the thirteen copies on WorldCat and COPAC the only copy in Britain is at the British Library.