FORREST-THOMSON, Veronica, Language-Games (School of English Press, University of Leeds), 1971 [first edition]

146 x 229mm; pp. xiii, 61

A truly wittgensteinian text. Veronica Forrest-Thomson’s second collection, after Identi-kit (1967), and the most important work published during her short life (born in 1947, Forrest-Thomson died in 1975, aged 27).

Language-Games marks the beginning of Wittgenstein’s profound influence on poetry, a result of his exceptionally creative investigation of the nature, limits and power of language. Specifically, Forrest-Thomson found in Wittgenstein “the most stimulating exposition” of what she calls the “historical present”: “in which past language-forms, whether borrowed from poetry, letters, speech, or the dictionary, are made into a framework for the present act of articulation”. This idea of sedimented meaning is, for Forrest-Thomson, just as useful as Wittgenstein’s meditations on “non-linguistic reality”. This formal approach has its parallel in Forrest-Thompson’s sparking use of high abstraction and everyday imagery – and her meditation on the intense limits of the purely intellectual life. Aside from the poetry itself, Forrest-Thomson’s (no less Wittgensteinian) theoretical work has been hugely influential.

Good condition: cover somewhat grubby, but otherwise glossy card binding strong and with neat edges; internally very good; ownership inscription (of the poet John Wilkinson).