HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE HO2058 9/15/02 "HARDY'S POETRY EDITIONS QUERY" ================================================================= From: "Kevin Jackson" Subject: Hardy's poetry Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 11:11:37 -0500 I, like many, have lurked in the background enjoying all manner of Hardy discussion. In an effort to take advantage of the wealth and knowledge of the Forum's participants, I need some help. I'm trying to collect, for my personal library, all of Hardy's works. I'm now looking for an edition of his poetry. What's the best edition of Hardy's poetry? Any recommendations? Thanks Kevin L. Jackson ========== Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 21:41:28 -0500 From: Bill Morgan Subject: Re: Hardy's poetry Kevin, I admire your intention to own copies of all Hardy's work. The simple answer to your question about which edition of Hardy's poetry to buy is: James Gibson, ed. *The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy* London: Macmillan, various dates beginning in 1976. There is a brand-new reprinting of this marvelous book, and it includes some corrections, and a few new features (though I personally think it's not as handsome to look at or hold as the older editions). You can probably get your local bookseller to order it for you. I've just done a search on http://www.bookfinder.com/ and it turned up several used copies for $15-$30. Now, if you want to get more complicated, there are three ways to go: (1) towards an even more scholarly edition, (2) towards a cheap reprint of *Collected Poems* (Note: *not* the same as *Complete Poems*), or (3) towards a *Selected Poems*. About (1): If you want all the variant readings (Hardy's revisions, etc.), you can spend several hundred dollars on either the one-volume James Gibson, *The Variorum Edition of The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy* or the three- (or five, if you want *The Dynasts* and other bits as well) volume Samuel Hynes, ed. *The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy* (Oxford: Clarendon, various dates) These books are also to be found via the Bookfinder site. About (2): A few years ago, Collins published a photo-reprint of the old *Collected Poems* (1930 and following); it is still available in a cheap paperback, I think (though it's mis-titled *The Complete Works of Thomas Hardy*). It has all the poems, but there are broken pieces of type, etc. I didn't search for it, but I suspect it too will be found on the Bookfinder site: search for *Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy*. About (3): I can't see any good reason for someone like you who wants to have all of Hardy's works, to buy a *Selected Poems*, but if you do want one, then write to me privately and I'll try to give you a road map to the dozen or more selections you might want to look at. And finally, I'd suggest you might want to take a look at Dennis Taylor's exemplary essay comparing the Gibson and Hynes editions; it's online at my Thomas Hardy Poetry Page at: http://www3.ftss.ilstu.edu/hardysoc/Authoritative%20Texts.htm Hope this helps. Feel free to email me privately if you have other questions. cheers, Bill Morgan Director, TTHA Thomas Hardy Poetry Page ========== Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 12:50:16 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Hardy's poetry Kevin, I second Bill's suggestion and would add that Martin Ray has made a scrupulously detailed study, "The Collation of the Gibson and Hynes Editions of Hardy's Poetry" (*The Hardy Review,* Volume IV, 2001), in which the Gibson edition tops the bill for accuracy (error-for-error). The latest Gibson edition of Hardy's "The Complete Poems" does feature one extra poem but for presentation purposes the 1976 edition is sturdier, more pleasing to handle and decidedly more handsome. I'm not an expert on binding but let me say that my 1976 edition has survived, intact, intercontinental travel on a wide scale as well as the hazards of Jim's midnight poetry readings on Weymouth beach where sea-spray and wine play an important part -- as they do on those shores further west where gleams the 'opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea'. Good Luck! Rosemarie ==========