Books

First edition, first impression, a dedication copy, inscribed by Hughes on the first blank four weeks before publication to his eight-year-old daughter Frieda, "To Frieda, love from Dad, 31st Jan 1968". Hughes wrote the story to comfort his children after the death of their mother, Sylvia Plath, and dedicated the book to the three of them. Nicholas's copy, inscribed on the same day, sold at Bonhams in 2018. The Iron Man is the most popular of all the poet's many works for children. It was made into a rock opera by Pete Townshend in 1993 and an animated film, The Iron Giant, in 1999. The majority of copies printed appear to have been acquired by school libraries, making this title perhaps one of the hardest Hughes trade editions to find in collectable condition, and signed or inscribed copies are decidedly uncommon. Octavo. Original pictorial boards, spine and front cover lettered in blue, white, and black. With dust jacket. Frontispiece and 4 full-page illustrations by Adamson. Unclipped jacket faintly soiled, spine panel lightly sunned: a fine copy in near-fine jacket. Sagar & Tabor A17a1.

A children's science fiction novel by Ted Hughes, featuring an iron giant who befriends a young boy and saves the world.