Eliot (T.S., poet, 1888-1965), Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, Robert Lowell, Seamus Heaney & others. A Personal Anthology for Eric Walter White, 2 vol., 58 autograph poems by many of the leading poets of the time, choosing their favourite poem from their own works, ten with accompanying Typed or Autograph Letters signed from the poets, many signed or with signed presentation inscriptions to Eric or Eric and his wife Dodo, with 2 typed poems loosely inserted into vol.2, c.80pp. excluding blanks, on recto and verso, thick cream wove paper, autograph title, list of contents (loosely inserted), and occasional pencil note by White, vol.1 half maroon morocco over cloth, vol.2 full cloth, one or two marks, overall bright and attractive, 4to, 1962-75.*** An outstanding and unique piece of literary compilation, amassing a collection of the poets’ favourite works from their own oeuvre, sometimes with further gleams from accompanying letters.This extraordinary album amicorum poeticorum, so titled ‘The Personal Anthology of Eric Walter White’ was created over a period of thirteen years for Eric Walter White, CBE (1905- 1985), who was the first Literature Director of the Arts Council, music critic and writer, and poet. The work contains 60 poems by many of the leading poets of the time, some with accompanying letters. From his remarkable literary connections, it appears that White sent the contributors the book and invited them to write by hand their favourite poem from their own body of work. Many choose some of their more obscure poems, and some were even composed impromptu for White. Others, such as Ted Hughes, chose 'Full Moon and Little Frieda', a well known poem about his daughter, while Heaney intriguingly chose 'Personal Helicon', an autobiographical poem from his first collection Death of a Naturalist. The first volume contains the majority, including 58 autograph poems by T.S. Eliot, Philip Larkin, W.H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Robert Lowell, Kathleen Raine, R.S. Thomas, John Lehmann, Edmund Blunden, John Betjeman, and others. The second volume includes two typed poems by Ken [?Smith], 2 autograph poems by Brian Patten, one by Harry Fainlight, a prose poem by J. Jeffray Jones, and a photograph of Eric White with Ted Hughes and his bull [Sexton]. Other poets who inscribed a work in the album include two by Anne Beer (‘Mist in the Otter Valley’ and ‘Birthday Poem from Venice’), Michael Schmidt (‘Underwater’ ), Roy Fuller (‘Sister Anne’), Alan Brownjohn, Kit Wright (‘Tune for an Ice Cream Van’), four by Brian Patten, two by James Kirkup (‘Ejaculations’ and ‘Tongue’), William Plomer (‘Before the Crash’), Vernon Watkins (‘Old Triton Time’), Peter Jay, Adrian Stokes, George MacBeth (‘Owl’, with a drawing of an owl), Dom Moraes (‘For My Son’), Tom Driberg (‘Apartment to Let’), John Lehmann (‘In the Museum’), John Hollander, Hugo Williams (‘Beginning to Go’), Edward Lucie-Smith (‘Pieta’), Charles Osborne (‘Nolan at fifty’), Wole Soyinka and Stuart Montgomery, and a drawing by Sidney Nolan.Poetical albums of this nature and quality are rarely available in commerce.