The Melville Press is pleased to have acquired the rights to a remarkable short story by Dylan Thomas. Originally published in A Prospect of the Sea in 1939, this powerful prose poem is a story of love and the sea. The book begins with the hero ashore as he wakens to a moonlit sea, and follows him on an ecstatic journey.

Vernon Watkins wrote of In the Direction of the Beginning, "The highly charged language of Dylan Thomas' symbolic stories reached its climax in what was to be his most ambitious story, the opening of which was left as a fragment - In the Direction of the Beginning. He told me that he would never again write a story of that kind, and at the same time his verse underwent a profound change, not exactly of language, but of approach."

Artist Catherine Kanner has designed the book on a generous scale with an elegant self- closing cover. Nine striking images have been printed letterpress from Ms Kanner's original linoleum blocks. Dylan Thomas' imagery is boldly black and white, so follows the design of the book . The binding is designed to open flat to give the artwork a generous read. The book is covered with black silk Japanese book cloth. The paper is Pescia, a 100% cotton mould-made paper from Fabriano/Magnani. The typeface is Centaur.