Tuesday 8 July 2014

Seamus Heaney's career as a poet started in the late 1950s in two student publications based at Queen's University, Belfast:  "Q" and "Gorgon".   One of Heaney's very first published poems was in Gorgon issue 3, in 1959, entitled Nostalgia in the Afternoon and credited to the pseudonym 'Incertus'.   Issue 4 (1960) featured Heaney's poem Aran, now credited to "Seamus J. Heaney".  Heaney would thereafter edit issue 5 (1961) of Gorgon, and contributed one further poem - Song of My Man-Alive.


Gorgon was published by the English Society at Queen's, and printed using a spirit duplicator (also referred to as a "Ditto machine" in North America, "Banda" in the UK or "Roneo" in France and Australia), and it is believed that the print runs for each issue were very small indeed, making these amongst the very rarest items in the primary Heaney canon. 

Research using worldcat.org (and other sources) suggests that only two libraries in the world possess copies of Gorgon.


Emory University, in Atlanta, USA, holds the 1959 and 1960 issues that contain Heaney poems, which were acquired in 2004 as part of their Raymond Danowski Poetry Library.  The Gorgon copies are viewed as a particularly important part of this huge collection, as seen in the University's journal from 2006 -(http://college.emory.edu/home/assets/documents/quadrangle/Q06S.pdf)


The British Library holds issue five from 1961, and cites it as a notable example of a 'Little Magazine' -(http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/journals/littlemagazines/littlemagazines.html)

I am now offering a unique opportunity to buy issues three (1959) and four (1960) of Gorgon in excellent condition, these having been in private ownership since publication.  Major university libraries across the English-speaking world are invited to submit on headed university notepaper formal offers for this set.  The best offer received by January 30th 2015 will be accepted and the magazines will be dispatched by registered/insured courier, with full payment expected within 30 days of receipt.

The magazines are pictured below, both unmarked and in excellent condition.  The copies may be inspected in person in London by a nominated representative of any institution considering making a bid.

Images of the two magazines are shown below.  Please address all inquiries to Robert Brown (booksearch@lineone.net)