Hughes, Ted — Gaudete

New York, Harper & Row, 1977. First Edition. Hardcover. Size: 8vo 8" - 9" tall. Gaudete, by Ted Hughes, a stated First Printing by Harper & Row, 1977, his first major work since the publication in 1971 of Crow. Illustrated provocatively by Leonard Baskin in black-and-white line drawings. Sturdy, attractive, tightly bound in hardcover format, two-tone, brick-red paper over boards, oatmeal cloth-backed, lightly toned at worst, minimal rubbing to extremities. Dust jacket, illustrated also by Baskin, lightly worn, protected by a plastic coat, price-clipped. Author's photograph appears on just jacket rear panel. At dust jacket inner flap he writes, "An Anglican clergyman is abducted by spirits into the other world. The spirits create a duplicate of him to take his place in this world, during his absence, and to carry on his work. This changeling interprets the role of minister in his own way. He organizes the women of his parish into a coven, a love society. And the purpose of this society, evidently, is the birth of a Messiah to be fathered by the clergyman." 200 pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. . . . Near Fine/Very Good,