Breathing the Water

Levertov, Denise. Breathing the Water. First Edition. Newcastle upon Tyne, Bloodaxe, 1988. Octavo. 79 pages. Original Softcover. Near Fine condition with slight foxing to the edges and minor staining. This copy includes a letter loosely inserted from Levertov to editor of poetry magazine The Shop, John Wakeman, the letter is dated June 24th, 1986. Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, London. Her mother, Beatrice Adelaide (née Spooner-Jones) Levertoff, came from a small mining village in North Wales. Her father, Paul Levertoff, had been a teacher at Leipzig University and as a Russian Hassidic Jew was held under house arrest during the First World War as an 'enemy alien' by virtue of his ethnicity. He emigrated to the UK and became an Anglican priest after converting to Christianity. In the mistaken belief that he would want to preach in a Jewish neighbourhood, he was housed in Ilford, within reach of a parish in Shoreditch, in East London. Levertov, who was educated at home, showed an enthusiasm for writing from an early age and studied ballet, art, piano and French as well as standard subjects. She wrote about the strangeness she felt growing up part Jewish, German, Welsh and English, but not fully belonging to any of these identities. Both politics and war are major themes in Levertov's poetry. Levertov was published in the Black Mountain Review during the 1950s, but denied any formal relations with the group. She began to develop her own lyrical style of poetry through those influences. (Wikipedia).