Author Description

The first volume of this two-volume edition of MacDiarmid's "Complete Poems" reprints the texts of the Penguin edition (1986), which was based on the first edition of 1978, which MacDiarmid himself saw through the press. Additional poems discovered since the first edition of 1978 are included, and the additional text revised. MacDiarmid insisted that his "Complete Poems" should be books of poetry, uncluttered by editorial annotations and notes. Michael Grieve, the poet's son, and W. R. Aitken, his bibliographer, have carefully followed his instructions, and compiled an extensive glossary based on the earlier collections.