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BARKER, Matthew Henry.
Tough Yarns;
A Series of Naval Tales and Sketches to please all Hands, From the Swabs on the Shoulders down to the Swabs in the Head. By The Old Sailor. Illustrated by George Cruikshank.
First edition. Uncommon naval fiction dedicated to Captain Marryat. COPAC has just BL, NMM, Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow and St. Andrews, OCLC adds 4 copies only in the US, and one in Australia. Barker was the Deptford-born son of a dissenting preacher. At 16 he joined an East Indiaman, and later served in the Royal Navy, "where, as he was without influence, he never rose beyond the rank of master's mate on the gun-brig The Flamar. After retiring from the service in 1813, he commanded a hired armed schooner, the True Briton, and was employed under Lord Keith in carrying dispatches to the English squadrons on the southern coasts of France and Spain. On one occasion he fell into the enemy's hands and was detained for some months as a prisoner of war" (ODNB). He was subsequently the editor of a West Indies newspaper, and later employed in a similar capacity in Nottingham. " He was naval editor of the United Service Gazette and a frequent contributor to the Literary Gazette, the Pictorial Times, and Bentley's Miscellany, the last at the time under the editorship of Charles Dickens, who came to value the consistent quality of the contributions of 'the old Sailor'. Barker was a friend of George Cruikshank, who illustrated seven of his works." Barker " felt that his publishers were less than generous with him" and when the popularity of sea tales waned he fell on hard times. He died in poverty in 1846. Armourial bookplate of Admiral Wilmot Hawksworth Fawkes, one time commander of the Royal Yacht and Commander-in-Chief of Portsmouth to the front patsedown, and that of the Earl of Mexborough to the front free.
Octavo (167 × 100 mm) contemporary half calf on marbled boards, rebacked, title gilt direct to the spine which is gilt in compartments. Engraved frontispiece and 7 other plates, vignettes to the text. Somewhat rubbed on the boards, new endpapers at the rear, plates browned as usual, text toned, a very good copy.
