AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT POEM (Juvenilia - 4 pages): "Bank Holiday"

[1926]. Manuscript. Several words on the last page are partly faded and obliterated by a repaired tear. A spectacular find in Good to Very Good condition. Exceptionally scarce 4-page AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT of a poem written by Auden as a teenager. Published in THE OXFORD OUTLOOK in November 1926 and not published in book form until 1994 in W. H. AUDEN JUVENILIA edited by Katherine Bucknell, from which much of the information below was acquired. Two other manuscript copies of this poem are known to exist, in the collections of David Ayerst (Bloomfield J16) and of Christopher Isherwood, neither exactly identical to this but both resembling this much more (truncated) than the published version which eliminated several stanzas present here. All told there are 78 lines divided into three sections on both sides of two 6-7/8" x 8-7/8" sheets of paper watermarked "Civic Bond" that have long ago been neatly joined by a conservator who also made several paper repairs. The poem begins "The queen's hand on the king's cold shoulder falling." Bucknell points out that the poem is reminiscent of THE WASTE LAND with the left out passages revealing some borrowing from Eliot's "The Hollow Men." This manuscript was acquired along with a letter from Auden to Robert Medley (not included) and was likely given to Medley at some point. Auden met and became friends with Medley in 1922 shortly after Auden's 15th birthday. It was Robert Medley who suggested that Auden try writing poetry. Later Medley helped to create the Group Theater where he provided scenery and costumes for the play ON THE FRONTIER by Auden and Isherwood. (Inventory #: 011818)