Unsigned handwritten manuscript by Dylan Thomas, one page, 6 x 8.75, November 1952, published word-for-word as a "Note" preceding the author's prologue in his Collected Poems, 1934-1952, published by Dent of London. In full: "The prologue in verse, written for this collected edition of my poems, is intended as an address to my readers, the strangers. This book contains most of the poems I have written, and all, up to the present year, that I wish to preserve. Some of them I have revised a little, but if I went on revising everything that I now do not like in this book I should be so busy that I would have no time to try to write new poems. I read, somewhere, of a shepherd who, when asked why he made, from within fairy rings, ritual observances to the moon to protect his flocks, replied: 'I'd be a damn fool if I didn't.' These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I'd be a damn fool if they weren't." In fine condition, with central vertical and horizontal folds, a few sets of staple holes to the page, and the designer's penciled note to the printer in the upper right corner.
Thomas's Collected Poems, 1934-1952, gathered together all but one poem from his three previous volumes of poetry (’18 Poems,’ ‘Twenty Five Poems,’ and ‘Deaths and Entrances’), plus a further six written since 1946, to make a total of 90. The book received widespread acclaim, and was honored with the esteemed Foyle poetry prize. Reviewing the volume, critic Philip Toynbee declared Thomas as 'the greatest living poet in the English language.'
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