Faber has announced the publication of the long-awaited, definitive edition of Seamus Heaney’s poetry, featuring a number of previously unpublished poems from the Nobel Prize-winning poet.
The Poems of Seamus Heaney, edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis, will be published on October 9th.
The new work encompasses all the poems Heaney published in his lifetime as well as the small number that appeared after his death: 12 single volumes, from Death of a Naturalist (1966) to Human Chain (2010), and those poems published in pamphlets, journals or magazines with limited circulation. In addition, the book includes previously unpublished material.
Each collection comes with a critical introduction and notes that illuminate the history and development of the poems.
Faber to publish definitive edition of Seamus Heaney’s poetry
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Speaking on behalf of the family, Catherine Heaney said: “It would be hard to overstate the importance of this moment for our family: The Poems of Seamus Heaney marks the pinnacle of an exciting and ambitious publishing programme, undertaken with Faber over the past decade.
“This edition will allow readers to see the full arc of my father’s poetic life, with introductions and notes that illuminate each collection, as well as uncollected poems from throughout his career. We are indebted to our brilliant editors – Bernard O’Donoghue and Rosie Lavan, with Matthew Hollis – whose years of meticulous scholarly work have culminated in this magnificent volume. We couldn’t be more proud of it.”
Lavinia Greenlaw, poetry editor at Faber, said: “Seamus Heaney’s unparalleled career exemplifies what it means for a poet to keep testing truths from the personal to the global, the political to the metaphysical.
“Heaney was also dedicated to his art and we can see here how he continued to explore the possibilities of his craft to electrifying effect.
“We are delighted and proud to be presenting this long-awaited edition: a drawing together of a body of work that through its originality, vitality and power to move us, continues to exert the most profound influence.”
[ The Letters of Seamus Heaney: ‘Flying kites in the imagination’Opens in new window ]
Faber is also set to mark the 50th anniversary of North with a reissued edition of the collection in hardback on June 19th.
Heaney was born in 1939 in Co Derry. In 1995, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the jury praising the “lyrical beauty and ethical depth” of poems “which exalt everyday miracles and the living past”.
Since his death in August 2013, aged 74, Faber has published his New Selected Poems, his version of Aeneid Book VI; 100 Poems; The Translations of Seamus Heaney; and The Letters of Seamus Heaney.
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