Summoned by Bells John Betjeman First Edition Signed Limited 1st/1st

Leather-bound, top edge gilt and limited to 125 signed and numbered copies. Some rubbing to extremities with a minor bump to bottom edge of front board. An excellent and clean association copy with Douglas Cleverdon Ex Libris label affixed to half title. The book was given to Douglas Cleverdon; a radio producer, bookseller, publisher and author as a 60th birthday present in 1963. Among the books Cleverdon published was Gills Art and Love and an edition of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with and introduction and illustrations by David Jones.

From 1939 - 1969 he worked for the BBC. During the war he devised The Brains Trust, and as a producer, mainly of radio features on the Third Programme, he commissioned and broadcast poets (including Betjeman), playwrights, composers and writers, giving a first hearing to Flanders and Swann and persuading Dylan Thomas to come up with Under Milk Wood, which Cleverdon produced in 1954 and featured Richard Burton in the role of First Voice.

Accompanying the book is a letter from Theodore; possibly a personal friend, although the references in the letter showing familiarity with John Betjeman and Jock Murray (publisher) suggest that it may have been somebody that Cleverdon had worked with previously. The item "Summoned by Bells John Betjeman First Edition Signed Limited 1st/1st" is in sale since Friday, June 16, 2017. This item is in the category "Books, Comics & Magazines\Antiquarian & Collectable". The seller is "fine_books" and is located in Chelmsford. This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Special Attributes: Limited
• Year Printed: 1960
• Author: John Betjeman
• Binding: Leather
• Language: English
• Publisher: Murray