Selected Poems was published by Macmillan in 1935 with an introduction by T.S. Eliot — an endorsement that carried enormous cultural authority and announced Moore’s arrival as a major figure, not merely an interesting experimentalist. The book selects from Observations and adds newer work, with revisions that Moore would continue making throughout her life.
The Book
Eliot’s introduction is characteristically precise: he identifies Moore’s “original sensibility and alert intelligence” and places her within modernism while acknowledging that she resembles no one else. He does not explain her — a gesture of respect that implies she needs no explanation, only attention.
The poems include most of Moore’s anthology pieces in their mid-career forms: “The Fish,” “Poetry,” “The Steeple-Jack,” “No Swan So Fine,” “The Jerboa,” “The Frigate Pelican.” They demonstrate her range — from the brief epigrammatic lyric to the extended descriptive meditation — while maintaining the consistency of method that marks a truly original poet.
Significance
Selected Poems performed the crucial function of making Moore accessible to a general literary audience. Observations had been a small-press edition; Moore’s reputation through the late 1920s and early 1930s rested on magazine appearances and word-of-mouth among poets. The Macmillan volume, with Eliot’s imprimatur, placed her on bookstore shelves and in library collections nationwide.
It also established the text of Moore’s poems in forms that would become standard — though Moore continued revising obsessively, and later editions would present different versions of the same poems, creating bibliographic complexity that has fascinated scholars.
Collecting Selected Poems
First edition (Macmillan, New York, 1935): Blue cloth binding with gold lettering. Dust jacket.
Identification points:
- Macmillan imprint
- “First Edition” stated
- Introduction by T.S. Eliot
- 123 pages
Market values: Fine copies in dust jacket bring $500–$1,500. The Eliot introduction and Macmillan’s larger distribution mean this is less rare than Observations but more widely sought.
Signed copies: $1,500–$3,000.
First UK edition (Faber and Faber, London, 1935): Published simultaneously. Blue cloth. Similar values.
The Eliot introduction alone makes this a crossover collecting item — Eliot collectors seek it alongside Moore collectors, doubling the demand.