STUART BENNETT Rare Books & Manuscripts P.O. Box 22855 Charleston, South Carolina 29413 tel. 415.305.8945 e-mail [email protected] BRITISH AND IRISH POETRY 1800-1888 1. ADAMS, THOMAS. The Poetical Works of Thomas Adams, Warkworth: consisting of the Battle of Trafalgar, and Some Miscellaneous Pieces. Alnwick: Printed by and for W. Davison, 1811. 208pp., sm. 8vo. Fifteen woodcut vignettes often attributed to Thomas Bewick, with the half- title. Slightly later green pebbled morocco gilt, g.e.; attractively rebacked with a gilt spine. $225.00 First and only edition, dedicated to Earl Percy (later the Duke of Northumberland), with whom the author was close. In addition to the “Battle of Trafalgar” in two cantos, there are miscellaneous poems “On the Percy Family,” “On Seeing a Dead Body,” “The Spaniard's Complaint,” and “The Astrologer’s Soliloquy.” Johnson, Provincial Poetry 1789-1839, 5; Hugo, Bewick Collector, no. 266, but not included in Tattersfield’s more recent, and comprehensive, Bewick bibliography. 2. [ANONYMOUS] - Amatory Poems, with Translations and Imitations from Ancient Amatory Authors. London: Printed for J. Bell, No. 148, Oxford-Street, 1805. xv, 64pp., sm. 8vo. With the half-title. Half red morocco over marbled boards, spine gilt, by Philip Dusel. $300.00 First edition, composed and translated when the author - “a native of another hemisphere. under the genial influence of a more southern sun” - was aged sixteen to nineteen. The editor apologizes for what might be seen as a “too luxuriant fancy,” as can be seen in such titles as “The Dream,” “Sweet Maid, You Oft, When Breast to Breast,” “To Miss ----. With a Note, Claiming a Pair of Gloves, as a Forfeit for a Kiss Stolen While She Was Asleep on a Sofa,” and “When Venus First Rose from the Ocean.” Five copies in OCLC: British Library, Bodleian, Trinity College Dublin, New York Public Library, and University of Kentucky. JANE AUSTEN’S CHARADES AND ENIGMAS 3. [ANONYMOUS] - A New Collection of Enigmas, Charades, Transpositions, &c. London: Printed for Longman, Hurts, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster Row; and J. Carpenter, New Bond Street, 1810. [iv], 229, [1], 6pp., 12mo. With the half-title and a terminal six-page publishers’ catalogue; minor spotting. An attractive copy, untrimmed in early boards; expertly rebacked with a printed spine label. $275.00 “A New Edition,” following the first of 1806, and containing two of the riddles Jane Austen included in Emma: Kitty, a fair but frozen maid, Kindled a flame I yet deplore. and My first doth affliction denote, Which my second was born to endure. Others in the volume include “If a woman were to change her sex, what religion would she be?” (Answer: “A He’-then”). Another, “To hear him, you’d swear he could execute wonders,/ Yet no man alive is so guilty of blunders,” pokes fun at printers. 4. [ANONYMOUS] - The Day of Waterloo. A Poem. With Notes, Illustrating the Principal Events of the ever Memorable Battle. Dublin: Printed for the Author by J. Charles, No. 57, Mary-Street, 1817. 60pp., 8vo. A real dog of a copy, but intact and readable. The first clue to what befell it comes from the two inscriptions on the title: “Robt. Nelson, Upper Queen St. School” and, on either side, “Mary Nelson.” Various scribbles and a little smear of red accompany these, along with grubbiness and some slight marginal tears at edges throughout, with a longer tear into the preface leaf with no loss of paper or text. Contemporary half calf; equally rubbed and worn, with a split in the upper joint. $75.00 First edition, rare, and full of the kind of detailed battle-scenes likely to be read and re-read by schoolchildren. OCLC locates two copies, National Library of Ireland and British Library. COPAC adds no more. 5. [ANONYMOUS] - Serenades, Songs, and other Poems. Edinburgh: Printed by John Moir, 1822. 47, [1]pp., sm. 8vo. Handsomely bound in contemporary black sheep, covers gilt-panelled with a wide foliate border, spine gilt, g.e.; a little rubbed. Half-title inscribed “From James White, to Jane Gibbon. 29th June 1822.” $275.00 First edition of these unabashedly romantic poems, many of them forthright declarations of love, a couple of them with a twist, as “To a Lady - with some Snuff”: For where were the use to lament and complain When you hold me so under your thumb? - And tho’ every embrace is succeeded by blows, There’s nothing in that I’m displeas’d at; For when first I was ta’en, tho’ you turn’d up your nose, I’m now not a thing to be sneez’d at! This elegantly-bound copy with its delicately-penned inscription must surely be a gift of affection. Whoever the author was, the book is now very rare, with OCLC recording copies at the University of Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, and Chapel Hill. YORK-PRINTED ROMANTIC ANTHOLOGY, NOT IN COPAC 6. [ANTHOLOGY] - The Bard: a Selection of Poetry. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.,; and J. Shillito, York, 1834. xv, [i], 335, [1]pp., 32mo ( (4¼ x 2¾ inches). An attractive copy in what is probably a deluxe publisher’s binding of purple morocco-grained sheep, stamped in gilt and blind, g.e. $175.00 Apparently the only edition of this rare York-printed anthology, with the colophon stating the printers to have been Coutas & Co. The work is dedicated to Viscount Morpeth, and the editor’s preface, which notes that the volume does not include “sacred and devotional poetry,” is dated York, Dec. 10, 1833. One of the poems, “The Use of Tears,” is by the dedicatee; many of the others are by Romantic poets, greater and lesser. Not in COPAC; OCLC records a copy at Cornell and one other in Belgium. 7. [ANTHOLOGY] - Poetry of the Affections. Selected from the most Esteemed Authors. London: Darton and Clark, 1839. xv, [i], 176pp., 32mo (4½ x 3 inches). Engraved frontispiece and additional title dated 1839. Nice copy in the original brown cloth, stamped in gilt and blind, g.e.; a little faded. Bookseller’s small inkstamp “May. Evesham” on front pastedown. $75.00 First edition, second issue, with the Darton and Clark rather than the Darton & Co. imprint which had the date 1838; the preface, signed “T.H.B.” is dated “Bedford, November 1838.” All but a few of the poems are nineteenth-century, with several by “L.E.L.” and Mrs. Hemans. OCLC records this issue in a copy at the Lilly Library, and the 1838 issue at Cambridge, Victoria and Albert, and Harvard. NO COPY RECORDED OUTSIDE ENGLAND 8. [ANTHOLOGY] - The Gift-Book of Poetry; Selected Chiefly from Modern Authors. Edinburgh: John Johnstone, 1843. xii, 204, 16pp., 12mo. Engraved and printed titles, also an engraved frontispiece by Howison after Stanley. Original straight-grained embossed cloth, upper cover and spine gilt-titled, g.e.; a little wear at spine head. $100.00 First and only edition, rare, with the editor signing the preface “K.” This is a wide-ranging Romantic miscellany with many lesser-known poets, especially women, but also including Wordsworth, Burns, Byron, Crabbe, Shelley, and Southey. Among the women are Mrs. Cottle, Mrs. Hemans, Miss Jewsbury, Miss Landon, Lady Flora Hastings, Caroline Bowles, Mary Howitt, and Mrs. W.W. Duncan. Not in OCLC, and COPAC records only the British Library and Bodleian copies. 9. [ANTHOLOGY] - The Forget-Me-Not. London and Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1849. 128pp., 32mo (3¾ x 2½ inches). Color-printed frontispiece, with the half-title. A battered copy in the original red cloth stamped in gilt and blind, g.e.; about half the spine missing. $20.00 An early edition of this anthology, mostly poetry with an occasional prose piece, intended, according to the preface, “for the memento of happier times than the solemn hour that seeks for a cherished memory of the dying one by surviving friends.” OCLC records an 1847 edition at Cambridge and an 1857 edition at NYPL and Toronto Public, not this one. 10. ATHERSTONE, EDWIN. A Midsummer Day’s Dream. A Poem. London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1824. [ii], 173, [1]pp., sm. 8vo. Engraved frontispiece and two plates by G. Cooke after J. Martin. Contemporary straight-grained green calf gilt; a bit rubbed. $85.00 First edition, a utopian poem that works its way through the world’s beauties and villanies to a glimpse of Judgment Day, with elegant illustrations (if only there were more) after the John Martin of Paradise Lost fame. 11. BAILEY, PHILIP JAMES. The Angel World, and other Poems. By Philip James Bailey. Author of “Festus.” London: W. Pickering, 1850. Two copies, each [iii], 111pp., sm. 8vo. Woodcut frontispiece, and the Pickering anchor device as title vignette, one copy with an additional leaf, “Basil Montagu Pickering’s Publications” loosely inserted at end, the other with an erratum slip tipped in after the title. The former copy in original red, the latter in original green cloth, matching gilt laurel and title on covers, spines gilt, g.e.; some wear and fading to bindings, each with ticket “Bound by Bone & Son, 76, Fleet Street, London.” $40.00 First edition of Bailey’s second book, admired by the Pre-Raphaelites. The book is found in various publisher’s bindings; here are two examples. 12. BAILEY, PHILIP JAMES. The Mystic and other Poems. London: Chapman and Hall, 1855. 154, [2]pp., 8vo. With the half-title. Nice copy in the original blind-patterned blue cloth, spine gilt; just a trace of rubbing to extremities. $50.00 First edition by, as the title states, “the author of “Festus.” 13. [BARON WILSON, MARGARET].