Search results for: 'poems'
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BRONTË, Patrick. Cottage Poems.
Halifax : 1811
First edition, sole impression, of this scarce debut collection of poems by the father of the Brontë sisters. Patrick Bronte's first published poem "Winter Evening Thoughts" had appeared in a local Shropshire newspaper in 1810. He then moved up to Yorkshire and had this collection of poems published in Halifax. Brontë would marry Maria Branwell in... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 133120
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KEATS, John. Poems.
London : 1817
First edition of Keats's first book, in the original boards. Poems was published on 3 March 1817 by Charles and James Ollier, who were already publishing Shelley. The first of a mere three lifetime publications, it is a work of mainly youthful promise - Keats had appeared for the first time in print less than a year earlier, with a poem in the radical... Learn More£47,500.00Stock Code: 113377
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TOWNSHEND, Chauncy Hare. Poems.
London : 1821
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper (probably in a secretarial hand): "From the Author". Townshend (1798-1868, originally Townsend, he added the "H" in 1828) was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, winning the chancellor's medal for his poem "Jerusalem" (published 1817) and thereafter "was determined to be... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 124878
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ROSSETTI, Christina. Poems.
London : 1892
Arthur Edward Waite's copy of this attractive collection of Christina Rossetti's poems, with his bookplate to the front pastedown. This copy has the contemporary ownership inscription of Waite's muse and great love Dora Stuart Menteath to the front free endpaper, "Dora Stuart Menteath, Feb 23rd 1893".
Waite met Dora in 1886 and the two fell... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 130308
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BARRETT BROWNING, Elizabeth. Poems.
London : 1844
First edition, first issue, presentation copy, inscribed by the author of the collection that made Elizabeth Barrett's fame: "To Miss Heard, with the author's regards, August 1844". A superb association: Miss Heard was a friend and, in Browning's mind, a rival for the attentions of the blind classicist Hugh Stuart Boyd (1781-1848), to whom she was devoted... Learn More£8,500.00Stock Code: 118727
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STUART-WORTLEY, Emmeline, Lady. Poems.
London : 1833
First edition of the author's first publication, fairly uncommon, around a dozen copies institutionally, but this a delightful presentation copy inscribed; "For the Marchioness of Londonderry with the Author's very Affectionate Love". Stuart-Wortley memorialised her friend, Frances Anne Vane-Stewart in verse in Fisher's Drawing Scrap-Book for 1838:... Learn More£575.00Stock Code: 141664
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JOHNSON, Samuel. A Miscellany of Poems by Several Hands.
Oxford : 1731
First and sole edition, celebrated for including Samuel Johnson's first appearance in print and the mention of him in the preface as "a Commoner of Pembroke-College in Oxford". Johnson spent only thirteen months at Pembroke (October 1728 to December 1729), forced to leave through financial constraints. His stay may have been short but the nineteen-year... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 125411
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SMART, Christopher. [Complete set of the Seatonian Prize Poems:]
Cambridge : 1750-6
A rare complete set of Smart's Seatonian Prize-winning poems on the Supreme Being, all first editions except for Omniscience which is a second (1756). This set is attractively presented together in a contemporary binding with the library label to the front board of Montacute House, Somerset, the home of the Phelips family, and the contemporary ownership... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 120509
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TENNYSON, Alfred Lord. Poems.
[London?] : 1862
First pirated edition of Tennyson's suppressed poems, taken from the Poems, Chiefly Lyrical of 1830 and the Poems of 1833, printed by J. Dykes Campbell and sold by the bookseller John Camden Hotten.
Tennyson took legal action, obtained an injunction to prevent its sale, and extracted an apology and 100 damages from Hotten. The book was issued... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 130070
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JOHNSON, Lionel. Poems.
London : 1895
First edition, number 6 of 25 inscribed large-paper copies, inscribed by the author on the initial blank "Twenty-five copies of this edition. No. 6. Lionel Johnson".
"His reputation was confirmed by the publication of his Poems in 1895, which marks the high point in his career" (ODNB). Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 144311
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Poems,
London : 1830
First edition, first state, of Tennyson's first solo poetry collection. It is preceded only by Poems by Two Brothers (1827), in which he appeared anonymously alongside his (in fact three) brother. "Some of Tennyson's most enduring notes, elegiacally lyrical, with his riven sensibility... are especially manifest in the volume's most remarkable achievements,... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 137218
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SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Miscellaneous Poems.
London : 1826
First edition of this very scarce early collected edition of Shelley's poetry, in the rare original boards. This Benbow piracy selects Shelley's poetry from various previously published editions, collecting mainly from the Posthumous Poems edition of 1824, but with some notable examples drawn from earlier publications. Excepting perhaps the Posthumous... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 106345
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BENSON, Arthur Christopher. Le Cahier Jaune. Poems.
Eton : 1892
First edition of Benson's first collection of poems; number 198 of a numbered 200 copies, this one signed by the author on the title page. A. C. Benson (1862-1925) was the son of Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the brother of talented intellectuals such as the writer E. F. Benson and Egyptologist Margaret Benson. After graduating... Learn More£575.00Stock Code: 81813
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SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Posthumous Poems.
London : 1824
First edition, first issue (without errata slip), in a very striking binding by Zaehnsdorf with their gilt stamp to the rear pastedown denoting exhibition-worthy work, and with appealing fin-de-siècle provenance (see below).
Edited by Mary Shelley, this collection contains hitherto unpublished poems - Julian and Maddalo (with its evocation of... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 141182
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VALE PRESS: SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. The Poems.
London : 1901-2
First Vale Press edition of Shelley's complete poems, following only a single-volume edition of Lyrical Poetry (1898, limited to 210 copies). The book was decorated and supervised by Charles Ricketts of the Vale Press.
Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), was an art nouveau designer who founded the Vale Press in 1894. Influenced by both the aesthetic... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 144840
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SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Miscellaneous Poems.
London : 1826
First edition of this very scarce early collected edition of Shelley's poetry, appealingly bound with an occult emblem to front board (flaming skull-and-cross-bones, snakes holding a heart, crowned with a crown and star, known by another copy to be that of collector Gilbert C. Elliot) and another bookplate (skull with a worm, initialled DMF). This Benbow... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 119978
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MORRIS, Richard. Early English Alliterative Poems,
London : 1864
First edition. The book marked the first complete publication of the poems Cleanness, Patience and Pearl, commonly believed to be by the same anonymous author who wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The poems were taken from the late-14th century manuscript known as Cotton Nero A.x, and were almost entirely unknown until a few portions were published... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 123389
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Poems, by two brothers.
London : 1827
First edition, small paper issue, of Tennyson's first book of poems, published anonymously. Despite the title, there were in fact three brothers involved, as the volume included poems by his brothers, Charles and Frederick. The Jacksons paid the authors 20 pounds for the copyright, a surprisingly large sum for unknown authors, obviously convinced of... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 127399
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Poems, chiefly lyrical.
London : 1830
First edition of Tennyson's first solo poetry collection, a very commendable copy in the original boards.
The collection was preceded only by Poems by Two Brothers (1827), in which he appeared anonymously alongside his (in fact three) brothers. "Some of Tennyson's most enduring notes, elegiacally lyrical, with his riven sensibility... are especially... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 144305
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Poems, chiefly lyrical.
London : 1830
First edition, second state, with p. '91' (from '19') corrected, and with 'carcanet' (from 'coronet') on p. 72, with errata. This work is Tennyson's first solo poetry collection, preceded only by Poems by Two Brothers (1827), in which he appeared anonymously alongside his (in fact three) brothers. "Some of Tennyson's most enduring notes, elegiacally... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 128253
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ROGERS, Samuel. Poems. New edition.
London : 1854
Very smart pairing of these handsome editions, among the most lavishly produced of the century. Italy was originally published in two parts (1822 and 1828) but was so badly received that "Rogers destroyed the unsold copies, revised it carefully, engaged Turner and Stothard to illustrate it, and republished it in a handsome edition in 1830. The success... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 115101
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ARNOLD, Matthew. The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems.
London : 1849
First edition of Arnold's first collection, one of only 500 copies printed. "In 1847 Arnold became personal secretary to a leading Whig politician, Lord Lansdowne, an undemanding post that brought him into the world of high society and allowed him ample time to cultivate the gifts he was discovering in himself as a poet. In 1849 he brought out his first... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 83809
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SMART, Christopher. A Song to David, with other poems.
London : 1924
First edition, first impression, of Blunden's edition of the poems of 18th-century lunatic poet Christopher Smart, most likely written during his stay in mental asylums, where he was confined from 1757 to 1763. With a contemporary newspaper clipping on Smart pasted to the front endpapers. Scarce in the dust jacket. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 128469
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KEATS, John. Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and other poems.
London : 1820
First edition of Keats's third and final book, a very scarce example in the original boards with spine and title label intact. This was the last book published in Keats's lifetime, about which he had "low hopes, though not spirits this shall be my last trial; not succeeding, I shall try what I can do in the apothecary line". Though Keats did not live... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 134735
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GRAY, Thomas. Designs for Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray.
London : 1765
Fourth edition overall, expanded from the three editions of 1753 with further Odes, of this large, elaborately illustrated publication of the best-known works of the poet Gray, including the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. A presentation copy of H. A. J. Munro's translation of the Elegy into Latin (c. 1873) is tipped-in at the rear endpapers.
"This... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 142136
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BLAKE, William - GRAY, Thomas. William Blake's Water-Colour Designs for the Poems of Thomas Gray.
London : 1972
First edition thus, first impression, number 93 of 352 copies, from an edition limited to 518, all printed on Arches pure rag paper made specially to match that used by Blake. This copy is signed by Blake's bibliographer Geoffrey Keynes on the colophon. Keynes was the chairman of the William Blake Trust, and contributes the introduction to the books.
In... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 145354
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BLAKE, William - GRAY, Thomas. William Blake's Water-Colour Designs for the Poems of Thomas Gray.
London : 1972
First edition thus, first impression, number 90 of 352 copies, from an edition limited to 518, all printed on Arches pure rag paper made specially to match that used by Blake.
In this extravagant tour de force Blake used Gray's poems, the printed text mounted on a large sheet, as the jumping off point for characteristically epic and imaginative... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 145352
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POE, Edgar Allan. The Raven and Other Poems.
New York : 1845
First edition in book form of Poe's breakthrough poem, one of around 750 copies. The title poem was first printed in January of the same year in the American Review under the pseudonym "Quarles", and under Poe's own name in the New York Evening Mirror. The Raven "made Poe's name known both in America and England, and brought him an immortality that... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 144874
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WORDSWORTH, William. The Poems.
London : 1845
Inscribed by the poet on the front free endpaper verso "Mary Littledale Greenwood written by written by sic William Wordsworth Rydal Mount 25 July 1846".
The recipient, Mary Littledale Greenwood (1930-1913) would have been just fifteen when she visited the 76-year old poet at his Rydal Mount home in the Lake District, where he lived from 1813... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 145807
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YEATS, W. B. Poems.
London : 1895
First edition, one of 750 copies printed, very scarce first state of the US issue with both US and UK publisher's slug to spine, but retaining the UK title page, and with the top edge ungilt. More usually copies of the US issue had a cancel title page with the Boston imprint, and a gilt top edge. O'Hegarty "notes that he has seen two copies, identical,... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 119668
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GUILD OF WOMEN BINDERS - DOBSON, Austin. Poems.
London : 1895
Signed limited edition, number 77 of 200 copies printed on hand-made paper, with proof impressions of the etchings, and signed by Dobson in pencil on the portrait frontispiece. This copy is elegantly bound by the Guild of Women Binders, and belonged to the Marchioness of Crewe.
The Guild was established in 1898 by a bookseller, Frank Karslake,... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 144802
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MEREDITH, George. Poems.
London : [1851]
First edition of the author's first book, the publication of which he funded himself. Though he later disowned the work, it was praised at the time by both Tennyson and Charles Kingsley. Learn More£825.00Stock Code: 130288
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VALE PRESS: WORDSWORTH, William. Poems.
London : [1902]
First Vale Press edition, first impression.
Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), was an art nouveau designer who founded the Vale Press in 1894. Influenced by both the aesthetic movement and William Morris's designs, his Vale press books are more classical than medieval in style and "the distinct personal element in those books derives from the woodcut... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 144843
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CLOUGH, Arthur Hugh. Poems.
London : 1890
A choicely bound copy. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 101683
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GRAY, Thomas. Poems.
[Eton] : 1894
First edition thus, presented to Edouardo Arcibaldo Douglas Collins as a retirement gift upon leaving Eton in 1897 by Edmond Warre, master, and later Head master and Provost of Eton; printed presentation label to first free binder's blank. A handsomely bound copy. Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 145207
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KINGSLEY, Charles. The Novels and Poems.
New York : 1899
Edition de Luxe, limited to 250 numbered copies printed on japon. With a letter written in the author's hand dated 4 April 1871 tipped into the first volume. Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 74248
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WALLER, Edmund. Poems, &c.
London : 1711
First illustrated edition, the eighth overall, containing the first appearance of an anonymous memoir of Waller (1606-1687) that contains "useful biographical materials" (ODNB). Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 127067
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HARDY, Thomas. Wessex Poems.
London : 1898
First edition, one of 500 copies. An exceptional copy of Hardy's first volume of verse, rare thus. Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 134116
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MOORE, Thomas Sturge. Two Poems.
London : 1893
First edition of the author's first book, printed in a small edition for family and friends, and consequently very rare, with only four copies known institutionally in the UK with a further three in the United States. Learn More£1,350.00Stock Code: 126966
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DRYDEN, John. Original Poems.
Glasgow : 1770
First Foulis duodecimo edition of Dryden's collected poetry, a pretty example in contemporary calf. The Foulis press, renowned for their elegant typography and the quality of their printing, had published Dryden's works once prior to this edition, in an octavo edition of 1756. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 144534
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VALE PRESS: KEATS, John. The Poems.
London : 1898
First Vale Press edition, one of 210 unnumbered copies on paper (a further 8 were issued on vellum), and superbly decorated by Ricketts of the Vale Press.
Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), was an art nouveau designer who founded the Vale Press in 1894. Influenced by both the aesthetic movement and William Morris's designs, his Vale press books are... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 144841
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SPENSER, Edmund. Minor Poems.
Chelsea : 1925
First Ashendene edition, one of 200 unnumbered copies printed on Batchelor handmade paper, the contents bright and fresh. A further 15 copies of this edition were printed on vellum. This was the last of the Ashendene folios to be printed in the distinctive Subiaco type. It was published as a companion to the Ashendene edition of Spenser's Faerie Queen... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 142513
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COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. Poems on Various Subjects.
London : 1796
First edition of Coleridge's first collection of poetry, preceding the Lyrical Ballads by two years, and also including four sonnets by Charles Lamb marking his first publication in book form.
The collection sold well enough for a second edition to appear the following year, which the author revised; in his later fame, Coleridge disavowed the... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 143174
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GRAY, Thomas. Poems and Letters.
London : 1879
A beautifully bound copy of the large paper issue of this attractively printed edition of Gray, with letterpress by the prestigious Chiswick Press. Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 115921
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FLINT, William Russell (illus.); HERRICK, Robert. One Hundred and Eleven Poems.
London : 1955
First edition, number 529 of 445 copies bound thus; a further 105 signed copies with eight extra plates were also issued, all printed at the artist's expense. Sir William Russell Flint (1880-1969), was described by Charles Wheeler, president of the Royal Academy, as an artist of "a steady hand, keen eye and gay spirit in a shaky world" (ODNB). His illustrations... Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 140576
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PARNELL, Thomas. Poems. Selected by Lennox Robinson.
Dublin : 1927
First edition, first impression, one of only 200 copies, of this selection of poetry by Thomas Parnell (1678-1718), friend of Pope and Swift, and ancestor of Yeats's infamous political hero Charles Stewart Parnell. With an introductory essay by Lennox Robinson. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 83967
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SHAKESPEARE, William. The Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, and Poems.
Boston : 1912
The New Grant White Shakespeare. The book lovers' limited edition of 1,000 numbered sets, of which this is number 869. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 127797
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PRIDEAUX, Walter. Poems of Chivalry, Faery, and The Olden Time.
London : 1840
First and only edition of this unusually early example of this genre, anticipating Tennyson's Arthurian poetry by over a decade. Possibly a family copy, with the ink ownership inscription "W. de C. Prideaux" to the half-title in a later hand, seemingly the author of Notes on Mediaeval Enamelled Armorial Horse Trappings, with Reference to a Weymouth... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 139881
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AYTOUN, Edmondstoune William. Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and other Poems.
Edinburgh : 1863
First Paton edition, superbly illustrated. "The book brims with Paton's half-page illustrations, headpieces and tailpieces (augmented by a few landscapes by his brother, Waller Paton) - the armour and historical costumes (Paton was a noted collector of these) perfectly realized to the last detail, the compositions unusual and forceful, the squeezed-together... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 137470
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CHADWICK, John W., ed. The Two Voices. Poems of the Mountains and the Sea.
Boston : 1886
First edition, scarce Boston imprint, in the very rare dust jacket, of this handsome concept-anthology put together by Harvard-educated poet and clergyman John White Chadwick (1840-1904), published in the year after he was elected the Phi Beta Kappa poet.
The Two Voices aligns a wide range of poets ancient and modern to enthuse on either side... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 143481
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DOVES PRESS: SHELLEY, Percy. Poems. Selected and Arranged by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson.
Hammersmith : 1914
Limited edition, one of 200 copies printed on paper, from an edition of 212 (the additional 12 were printed on vellum). The book was printed just two years before Cobden-Sanderson threw the Doves typeface into the Thames, thus concluding the bitter dispute between him and his partner Emery Walker, and bringing the era of the Doves Press to a close. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 118500
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POPE, Alexander. The Rape of the Locke.
London : 1712
The first printing of Pope's Rape of the Lock, published anonymously in two cantos, extracted from its appearance in Bernard Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, 1712, pp. 353-376. Lintott paid Pope 15 to expand the poem following this printing, with the revised and full poem published in five cantos in 1714, under Pope's name. Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 135474
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GOLDSMITH, Oliver. The Deserted Village, A Poem.
London : 1770
The third edition of Goldsmith's Deserted Village, one of the great poems of the 18th century, here bound in an attractive contemporary binding alongside six other poems, including examples of the biting poetic satires of Charles Churchill and William Coombes.
Bound third, with:
i) CHURCHILL, Charles. The Ghost. London: printed for the... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 116410
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ARNOLD, Matthew. An amateur manuscript copy of The Forsaken Merman.
1897
A unique calligraphic manuscript copy of Arnold's poem "The Forsaken Merman". The present copy includes fine illustrations within ornamental borders, possibly after original designs, in an art nouveau style reminiscent of masters such as Edward Burne-Jones, Robert Anning-Bell, and Walter Crane. We were unable to trace information about the "Dodo" who... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 138062
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WILDE, Oscar. The Sphinx.
London : 1894
First edition, first impression. Although the stated limitation was of 200 copies, there appear to have been 303 copies printed, with 128 copies left standing unbound in quires and it is possible that this copy was bound for Hatchards from one of the remaining unbound sheets (see Nelson). Wilde's poem, together with Charles Ricketts's art nouveau illustrations... Learn More£5,750.00Stock Code: 131703
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BECKFORD, William. [Vathek.] An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished manuscript:
London : 1786
First edition. Beckford's Gothic oriental novel Vathek, was written in French between January and May 1782. This English translation by the literary scholar Samuel Henley was published first in June 1786, despite Beckford's express wish that the French edition should precede it. The latter was published in Lausanne in December 1786 (postdated 1787),... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 128808
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CARMAN, Bliss; & Richard Hovey. More Songs From Vagabondia.
Boston : 1896
First edition, one of 60 large paper copies, inscribed and signed by Carman with the 8-line poem "Daisies" (also printed on page 13) written out on the half title, and additionally signed or initialled by Carman no less than 26 times in the text (conceivably marking out the poems of which he, rather than Hovey, was author). Carman has also signed the... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 122231
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. The Charge of the Light Brigade.
[London] : 1855
First separate edition, extremely scarce in this format, one of 1,000 copies published for distribution to the troops in the Crimea, with a note in manuscript at the foot of the mount: "My father Col. Adolphus Burton C.B. was in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava. G.D.B. his eldest daughter, Grace, whose married name was Grace Denys-Burton"... Learn More£42,500.00Stock Code: 111544
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HAYLEY, William. Plays of Three Acts; written for a Private Theatre.
London : 1784
First edition. Lovely copy of the collected theatrical works of this now largely forgotten, but once highly popular writer, exceptionally prettily bound and with an attractive provenance. Hayley is best remembered today as a friend and patron of George Romney and William Blake, and biographer of Milton.
Hayley (17451820) "although affluent was... Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 139629
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COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor; Percy Bysshe Shelley; John Keats. The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats.
Paris : 1829
First edition of the first anthology of the Romantic writers, also comprising the first collected edition of the poems of John Keats. Each poet is prefaced with a memoir, that of Shelley incorporating Mary Shelley's preface to his Posthumous Poems. Galignani's Paris editions of the English poets were piracies (he also pirated Crabbe, Hazlitt, Washington... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 136066