Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Seamus Heaney. Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish (Signed). Field Day, Derry, 1983.
Price: US$186.83 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Book condition: VG/Fine. First paperback edition. Signed by Seamus Heaney on the title page. A bright copy.
Seller: Kirklee Books, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Price: US$400.21 + shipping
Description: pp78. 8vo, hard cover. Fine in fine dust jacket. Signed by Heaney on title-page.
Seller: Louella Kerr Books, Petersham, NSW, Australia
Price: US$600.00 + shipping
Description: First Impression, cloth issue, one of 1,000 copies. Octavo (23.75cm); greyish-white rexine cloth boards, with titling and decorative elements stamped in black on spine and front cover; dustjacket; xii,77,[3]pp. Signed by the author on the title page, dated August, 1993. Fine in a Fine dustjacket, with some trivial wear along the upper edge. A sharp copy of Heaney's translation of Buile Suibhne, a classic of medieval literature. "The story centres on the fate of Sweeney, the king of Dal-Arie in Ulster, who was cursed by a saint, turned into a bird, and driven astray for years until the curse was fulfilled by his death" (from front flap). Brandes & Durkan A34.a.
Seller: Captain Ahab's Rare Books, ABAA, Stephenson, VA, U.S.A.
Seamus Heaney. Sweeney Astray. Field Day Theatre Company, 1983.
Price: US$650.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Londonderry, Ireland: Field Day Theatre Company Limited, 1983. 77 pp. SIGNED true first edition. Buckram binding in the original unclipped dust jacket. Two-color typography. In VG+ condition with NF dust jacket. Some foxing to preliminary pages. Inscribed in 1993 by Heaney (in Gaelic) to poet, editor and essayist Donald Faulkner who subsequently became director of the NY State Writers Institute. Also signed (three years earlier) by Marie Claire Sweeney, an Irish theatre festival organizer. The Field Day Theatre Company, founded in 1980, was an attempt by six Irish artists and intellectuals (Brian Friel, Stephen Rea, Seamus Deane, Seamus Heaney, David Hammond and Tom Pauli) to respond to the unsettled political situation in a socially, morally and creatively responsible manner. Sweeney Astray is a version of the medieval Irish epic Buile Shuibhne. It won the 1985 PEN Translation Prize for verse.
Seller: White Square - Fine Books & Art, Easthampton, MA, U.S.A.
Heaney Seamus. Sweeney Astray A Version from the Irish. A Field Day Publication, 1983.
Price: US$827.10 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition - Fine copy in fine dustrapper - Includes newsclippings with dates and publications noted - Signed by the author - 7/0003 - 77pp. - A Field Day Publication, Derry. 1983. Hardcover. . . . .
Seller: Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd., Galway, GY, Ireland
HEANEY, Seamus.. Sweeney Astray - A version from the Irish.. Field Day, Derry., 1983.
Price: US$837.51 + shipping
Description: First edition. Octavo. 77 pages. Three page Introduction by the author, by whom there is also one page of Notes and Acknowledgements. Two drawings by Colin Middleton.Signed by the author on the title-page.Fine in very near fine dustwrapper with a hint of fading to the spine.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$1224.05 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Full buckram binding. This is the true world First Edition, First Impression. Signed by Author. A wonderful version from the Irish by this acclaimed Nobel winning poet with superb two colour typography. This beautiful production from Field Day is a much sought after book, and especially rare in a signed copy as this. The Nobel Laureate has signed this on the title page. He has dated it as '26.6.87' so it is later than the publication date of 1983. He has also cancelled his printed name. There is an illustration on the front cover of the jacket, by Colin Middleton with a slightly adapted version of the same drawing used on the buckram front binding inside a recess. Two internal drawings, one of a birds nest, containing the head of a bird and a human hand and the other a further appearance of the cover device but printed in sanguine ink. All the drawings are by Middleton. This is a very difficult title to find signed. I ordered it from Field Day and wish I had ordered more copies, because it quickly sold out. I have left the price sticker on the back cover, which says £8! I obtained the signature at a reading on Londons South Bank.Slight foxing to a few pages, and a neat former owner blind stamp and name to the half title, which explains why this is Near Fine. Jacket is protected and unclipped, and it is without any damage or spine fade. Very rare indeed. 0.0 0.0 0.0
Seller: THE BOOKSNIFFER, Lewes, East Sussex, United Kingdom
Price: US$1352.60 + shipping
Condition: New
Description: First Edition, First Printing. A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper. The author has crossed out his name on the title page and signed it "Seamus". On the same page he wrote the following: "for Ronald and Marie / from Heaneys astray / in St. Gallen / with gratitude for the / welcome and hospitality / Seamus + / 27 July 1983". Laid into the book there is a note saying that Heaney got the date wrong as it was November 27th 1983.
Seller: Yves G. Rittener - YGRbookS, Zürich, Switzerland