The Venus Touch Poems by Maureen Duffy

London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971. Very Good. FIRST, LIMITED EDITION, no. 310/ 500. 8vo, pp. 62, [2] + b/w frontis and erotic line drawings by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimpt. Bright salmon pink linen, spine lettered in gilt, upper board blocked and lettered in gilt. Pushing to spine ends, fox spots to edges. Signed in blue ink by Duffy to half-title, faint blotch to title page through first poem, a little musty. Else, tight and tidy. In the original tissue dust jacket, which simultaneously reveals and conceals the erotic image on the front board: spine and edges darkened, creasing to edges, extremities nicked. A very good copy of Duffy's second poetry collection. Very good/ very good Author and activist, Maureen Duffy (1933-) is perhaps best know for her third novel, The Microcosm (1966), set in and around the renowned lesbian nightclub, the Gateways club. Having come out in the early 1960s, she worked for the Homosexual Law Reform Society and wrote for The Minorities Research Group and Arena Three, as well as Sappho. Her fellow LGTBQ activist, the academic, journalist and critic, Alison Hennegan credits Duffy with "the first modern lesbian love poems, unabashed and unapologetic. These showed what was possible."