Outposts (21 issues, 1958–1967)

The oldest independent poetry magazine, including early work by B S Johnson, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes etc

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Printing Details

21 issues, card covers with stapled binding. Each 21.5 × 14cm, each running to about 24–30 pages.

Here are twenty one issues of Outposts, an important (and the oldest) independent poetry periodical published in South London by poet Howard Sergeant. It was first published in 1944 and it's goal was to promote the work of younger poets. In it's early years it championed the young Muriel Spark (Howard Sergeant was a boyfriend at the time).

The issues on offer here contain early work but some very notable poets. B S Johnson appears in four issue (before his first volume of poetry was published), there are early poems by Seamus Heaney (in three issues), Ted Hughes (he appears in one), and also including Dannie Abse, Stevie Smith, Vernon Scannell, Elizabeth Jennings, John Heath-Stubbs, Harry Guest, Charles Causley, Peter Redgrove, Roy Fuller, Michael Longley, D M Thomas, John Pudney, Boris Pasternak, and Kevin Crossley-Holland (among others).

The issues here are No. 37 (Summer 1958, 38 (Autumn '58), 39 (Winter '58), 40 (Spring '59), 43 (Winter '59), 44 (Spring '60), 48 (Spring '61), 50 (Autumn '61), 51 (Winter '62), 59 (Winter '63), 62 (Autumn '64), 63 (Winter '64), 65 (Summer '65), 66 (Autumn 65'), 68 (Spring '66), 69 (Summer '66), 70 (Autumn '66), 71 (Winter '66), 72 (Spring '67), 73 (Summer '67), and 74 (Autumn '67).

Each volume carries several poems followed by a few pages of book reviews and critical notices.

Condition

All issues are in good to very good condition. There is a little tanning to some covers and a little rusting to the staples but otherwise they remain in strong readable condition and form a good collection of early work by several well-known poets.

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