Presentation copy. presentation copy, inscribed to editor, critic, anthologist, and bibliophile John Hayward: 'to John Hayward / [drawing of a compass] / the vertical compass the / unfailing guide / affectionately Roland Penrose'. With two additional manuscript lines of poetry added to another page.

The Road is Wider than Long is a surrealist love poem with photographs originally presented by Penrose to Lee Miller in manuscript form. Penrose and Miller met in Paris in 1937 and soon began a romantic relationship. They travelled through Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria together the following year, each taking photographs, and Penrose based this book on his journals from the trip. In 1938, Penrose launched the London Gallery with Belgian artist E.L.T. Mesens, which became a centre for Surrealism in England. The Road is Wider than Long was published by the London Gallery as the first in a proposed series, interrupted by the war in Europe, of surrealist poetry edited by Mesens.

First edition, number 128 of 510 copies, presentation copy inscribed on the half-title with two additional lines added in manuscript; 8vo (216 x 167 mm, 8½ x 6½ in); black-and-white photographs printed in relief halftone at the Bradley Press, text in black and red; original gelatin silver photograph endpapers, imitation wood paper-covered boards, titles to spine and upper side in blue, cover designed by Hans Bellmer, light wear to extremities, an excellent copy; [52]pp.

Regards à travers Le Livre 51; Auer Collection p271.