T O M A R A T A
b y   K E N D R I C K   S M I T H Y M A N
w i t h   a n   A f t e r w o r d   b y   P e t e r   S i m p s o n . 1 9 9 6

Planned while the poet Kendrick Smithyman was still alive and with his cooperation, this book became, sadly, a memorial publication with the poet's death on 26 December 1995 at the age of 73. Smithyman was one of New Zealand's most prolific and accomplished poets, publishing more than a dozen volumes and more than 700 individual poems in a long career. Tomarata  is published here exactly fifty years after his first book, Seven Sonnets, was printed by Bob Lowry at The Pelorus Press in 1946.

"Tomarata" has long been recognised as one of Smithyman's finest and most exemplary poems; it was written in 1970, at the mid-point of his career, and was first published in The Seal in the Dolphin Pool, 1974. In this edition the poem is accompanied by facsimile reproductions of specimen pages of the poet's original typescript, including hand-written emendations, and by an Afterword by Peter Simpson which comments on the process of composition which the poet's typescripts reveal.

This edition is of 125 numbered copies, designed, printed on a Littlejohn cylinder proof press, and bound by Alan Loney. The 12pt Electra Linotype was set by John Denny at Puriri Press, and the display types handset by the printer. Illustrations use photopolymer plates supplied by RPM Ltd.

25 copies are on Barcham Green India Office handmade paper damped for printing and quarter bound in cloth with Canson Mi-Teintes paper-covered boards. Format: 290x190mm, [25] pages. Out of print.

100 copies are printed dry on Mohawk Superfine and limp bound in Canson Mi-Teintes papers. Format: 290x165mm, [25] pages.

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