Out of a Book.

Muriel Spark's first separate appearance in print, a poem written when she was 15 years old under her maiden name Muriel Camberg. It was the winning entry in a fundraising competition marking the centenary of the death of Sir Walter Scott. The teachers at James Gillespie's High School for Girls encouraged Spark to write, and she often had her poetry published in the school magazine, as well as in a book of Edinburgh schools' writing. Christina Kay, one of the teachers who encouraged the young Spark to write, was later the inspiration for the charismatic teacher in her best-known work The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Some wear along the edges of the sheet, with creases, and a little soiling, otherwise in excellent order.

Rare. OCLC and Library Hub list only four copies held institutionally worldwide: two in the UK at the British Library and Edinburgh University Library; and two in North America at the Washington University Library and the University of Tulsa.

First and only edition; single sheet, printed in purple; overall size: 221 x 139 mm.

Rees, A1(a).