TENNYSON, Alfred Tennyson, Lord.
In Memoriam.
London: Edward Moxon … 1850.
8vo, pp. vii, [1], 210; with an 8-page Moxon catalogue dated February 1850 inserted between the front endpapers; a good copy in the original purple ribbed cloth faded to brown, a little rubbed, some spotting to back cover.
First edition, first issue, with the misprints on page 2 (‘the sullen tree’ for ‘thee sullen tree’) and page 198 (‘baseness’ for ‘bareness’).
Tennyson’s beloved Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam died suddenly in Vienna in 1833. Tennyson was shattered by the news and began to write the first lines of In Memoriam even before ‘lost Arthur’s loved remains’ reached England. He continued working on the poem for seventeen years, one of the most moving evocations of loss in English, touching also many of the deep concerns of the day. Queen Victoria was among its admirers.
Wise I, 37; Hayward 246.
