The Mersey Sound (book) - History

History

The Mersey Sound is number 10 in a series of slim paperbacks originally published in the 1960s by Penguin in a series called Penguin Modern Poets. Each book assembled three compatible poets. Number 6, for example, contained George Macbeth, Edward Lucie-Smith and Jack Clemo. The other books in the series were not given a specific name.

The Mersey Sound contains 128 pages, the half title page being number 1. Henri is first with 44 pages (30 poems), then McGough with 32 pages (24 poems) and Patten with 31 pages (26 poems).

A revised edition was published in 1983 with 160 pages and extra poems, such as Henri's "The Entry of Christ Into Liverpool". Some of the reprinted poems had been revised in the meantime, and some were omitted, such as McGough's "Why Patriots Are a Bit Nuts In the Head". The blurb mentions the revisions, but there is no explanation for the omissions. There was also the addition of short biographies of each poet. By this time over 250,000 copies had been sold of the original format, which is now only available second-hand.

The revised edition was still called The Mersey Sound but subtitled (on the cover only) "Revised Edition". There was a different cover designer (Trickett and Webb Ltd), with a photo of the three poets taken by Dmitri Kasterine. At the same time another book in the same format, and with complementary graphics, was published, titled New Volume with all new poems by each poet, and the same biographies as in the revised edition. Again the space is weighted in favour of Henri (57 pages) with McGough, 33 pages, and Patten, 35 pages, though they each have two more poems included than Henri, whose section includes longer poem sequences such as from "Autobiography".