SIGNED AND DATED BY JARMAN, WITHOUT DEDICATION.

JARMAN, Derek ~ Modern Nature. The Journals of Derek Jarman. Signed by the author.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Century, London: 1991.

Large 8vo., dark navy publisher's boards, lettered in white to spine with publisher's device to foot; pp. 16 of black and white photographs appearing halfway through the text on glossy paper; with the original unclipped photographic dustwrapper by Liam Longman; THE BOOK with some very light spotting to the outer edges of the text block, and two small dark stains to the first and final page of photographs; very good to near-fine; THE WRAPPER near-fine, and completely unfaded to the backstrip (as is often found). The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover with circular 'signed copy' sticker. FIRST UK EDITION. This copy signed and dated by Jarman to the half title: '21 Aug 92'. A list of books by Derek Jarman by Shipley Specialist Art Booksellers is also loosely inserted. Derek Jarman began his film career as a designer for the stage. After meeting Ken Russell - who invited him to design the sets for The Devils (1971) and Savage Messiah (1972) - he began to make his own experimental films, and by 1976 he had made his mainstream narrative filmmaking debut with Sebastiane (1976), a film concerning the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. Praised for its positive images of gay sexuality, the music was composed by Brian Eno. In 1978 he began to write a screenplay based on the Italian painter Caravaggio, a film which was not produced until several years later, following controversy over the broadcasting of his films on Channel 4 (criticised by the likes of Winston Churchill as well as the film director Michael Winner, who publicly accused Jarman of making pornography). Released in 1986, Caravaggio marked the beginning of Jarman's collaboration with the actress Tilda Swinton, and was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for an outstanding single achievement. In December 1986, Jarman discovered that he was HIV positive. He withdrew to a cottage at Dungeness, and the journals included in this work document his time spent there as a 'hermit in the desert of illness'. They include his filming of 'The Garden' (shot largely around his own garden on the shingle beach), videos for the Pet Shop Boys, the concieving of an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II, and the contracting of tuberculosis which nearly dragged him down. Also included here are Jarman's early life - the difficult relationship he had with his father, being discovered in bed with another boy at prep school, his coming out in the company of David Hockney and Patrick Proctor, and much more. "Modern nature is at once a volume of autobiography", the dustwrapper states, "a lament for a lost generation and a celebration of gay sexuality". Books by this author are very scarce signed. A lovely copy.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine