The Spirit Level. London: Faber & Faber, 1996. First Edition, First impression. Pp, 70. A fine bright in pictorial dust jacket.

Signed by Heaney on the title page.

A significant collection in his oeuvre, marking a pivotal moment in his career, coming just a year after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1995). The collection reflects Heaney’s characteristic themes—memory, history, nature, and moral responsibility—while also demonstrating a renewed sense of balance and reconciliation, as suggested by the title itself.

 It won the poetry prize for the 1996 Whitbread Awards, and solidified Heaney’s reputation as a poet who could balance the personal and the universal with grace.