Smyth | Poems of Spirit and Action, 1964, Freddie Mercury's copy with extensive notes

W.M. Smyth (ed.)

Poems of Spirit and Action. London, 1964.

8vo, original cloth, ownership inscription (“Fred Bulsara”), manuscript pencil notes by the young Freddie Mercury to 43 pages, providing commentary ("the poet imagines seeing a plane coming back from an air-raid and about to crash") and judgements ("ideas quite good") on poems, definitions of words, and some more whimsical comments (including a reference to John Wayne), also with an autograph manuscript poem entitled 'Bird' ("Feather flutter in the sky...") in black pallpoint on the rear endpaper, and other notes, sketches, and doodles including a sketch-map, covers worn 

AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE SURVIVING SCHOOL BOOK, SHOWING THE YOUNG FREDDIE MERCURY'S ENGAGEMENT WITH POETRY. Fred Bulsara arrived in England with his family in May 1964, having fled the revolution in Zanzibar. The Bulsaras settled in Feltham, south-west London. From September 1964 to the summer of 1966 Freddie studied at Isleworth Polytechnic, where he obtained the qualifications he needed to study art at Ealing Technical College (he was attracted to Ealing by its musical connections; it counted Ronnie Wood and Pete Townshend were recent alumni).

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