Moore was invited to design a cover for Contemporary Poetry and Prose, a magazine connected with the English Surrealist movement which reflected the link between the artistic avant-garde and left-wing politics in the mid-1930s. Founded and published by Roger Roughton in May 1936, this short-lived magazine boasted work by distinguished contributors including David Gascoyne, E.E. Cummings, Wallace Stevens and Dylan Thomas (see also HMF 1353). Moore's final design HMF 1353a, was used on the cover of Issue 9 in spring 1937, and again - in different colours - for the last issue in the autumn of that year, when the magazine collapsed after running into censorship difficulties. Despite Moore's change of mind on the issue numbers and the confusion over dating, he seems to have been working towards the spring 1937 issue, although it is possible that he began the designs towards the end of 1936. In 1966 Moore based two lithographs CGM 64 and 65 on this drawing.