Ian Hamilton Finlay

This volume surveys the life and work of the Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay, who is best known for his extraordinary garden, Little Sparta, a unique 'poem of place' in which poetry, sculpture, and horticulture intersect. This book directs sustained attention to Finlay the verbal artist, revealing the full breadth and richness of his poetics. It illuminates the evolution from his early years of composing plays, stories and lyrical poems to his discovery of Concrete poetry and his emergence as a key figure in the international avant-garde of the 1960s.

This volume surveys the life and work of the Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay, who is best known for his extraordinary garden, Little Sparta, a unique 'poem of place' in which poetry, sculpture, and horticulture intersect. This book directs sustained attention to Finlay the verbal artist, revealing the full breadth and richness of his poetics. It illuminates the evolution from his early years of composing plays, stories and lyrical poems to his discovery of Concrete poetry and his emergence as a key figure in the international avant-garde of the 1960s.

These letters to (and from) Finlay's friend, the English poet and scholar, Stephen Bann, centre on the initial development of the garden at Stonypath, near Edinburgh, later to become the world renowned 'Little Sparta'. They cover Finlay's turn away from poetry towards sculpture and garden design, and the thinking behind, and consequences of, this development. This book, edited, introduced and annotated by Bann himself as was Midway, its companion volume of letters, completes the portrait of the man who is now recognized not only as a great poet, but also as a major artist and one of the most original garden designers of modern times. "... Bann's superb two volume set of Finlay's correspondence... These handsomely printed volumes, amply footnoted, with biographical and historical commentary leading readers up and down the stony path, are an extended conversation with one of twentieth-century Britain's most unexpected artists." -Times Literary Supplement Read the full review here