Carter (Angela) Heroes & Villains, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author "from Angela for Edward" on title, with seemingly unpublished poem in authors hand on front free endpaper, light strip of browning on endpaper, original boards, dust-jacket, extremities chipped and slightly rubbed, spine toned, one or two marks to panels, 8vo, 1969.

⁂ Association copy, inscribed to her friend Edward Horesh. With a seemingly unpublished and undated poem by the author titled 'The Hero's Portrait'.

"Riding a black horse, death / his fellow-traveller behind the saddle"... so begins the ostensibly unpublished poem by Carter. She turned her hand to poetry only briefly, mainly in the earlier years of 1963-66. Unicorn was her only published collection, after which she returned to another novel in 1967, The Magic Toyshop. Her poetry generally is not as lionized as her novels, though similar use of myth and fairytale, cut with violence and the banality of human behaviour are present in embryonic form. This poem is no different - mythical in narrative and dark in atmosphere it foreshadows her proceeding work in years to come, especially apparent in arguably her most celebrated work, The Bloody Chamber (1979).