English Literature
Contact Donovan Rees
British literature and history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with an emphasis on poetry, fiction, and drama.
We usually have a selection of literary works from the STC and Wing period (i.e. before 1701), and a broad range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction and poetry, particularly the Romantics. We also have a selection of historical manuscripts, prints and broadsides, and works in translation.
Among important works which have passed through our hands are the editor's presentation copy of Milton's Lycidas, Swift's Modest Proposal, the autograph draft of Byron's She walks in beauty, the autograph manuscript of Jane Austen's only play Sir Charles Grandison, Dickens’s copy of Vanity Fair, Trollope's classical library, and, over the years, some fifty Shakespeare First Folios.
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HORACE; James TATE (editor).
Horatius restitutus: or the books of Horace arranged in chronological order according...
Smith for J. & J.J. Deighton, 1832.
First edition of this attempt to arrange the books of Horace in chronological order by the classical scholar and master of Richmond School, James Tate (1771–1843), this copy presented by him to Thomas Gaisford (1779–1855), classicist, Dean of Christ Church Oxford, Regius Professor of Greek,...
£150
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HUGHES, John.
Poems on several Occasions. With some select Essays in Prose. In two Volumes …
London: Printed for J. Tonson and J. Watts. 1735.
First edition of the principal collection of the author’s works, published posthumously and edited, with a long biographical preface, by his brother-in-law, William Duncombe. John Hughes (1677–1720) was educated at a dissenting academy where Isaac Watts was his contemporary. From an early...
£850
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HUGHES, Ted.
T.S. Eliot: A Tribute by the Poet Laureate.
[London,] ‘Privately Printed by [the Salient Seedling for] Faber and Faber’, [August 1987].
A privately printed tribute to T.S. Eliot, limited to 250 copies signed by Ted Hughes. The text comprises an address given by Hughes on 26 September 1986, at the unveiling of Eliot’s blue plaque at Kensington Court Gardens.
£175
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[JAMIESON, John.]
Congal and Fenella; A Tale in Two Parts.
London, C. Dilly, 1791.
First and only edition of Jamieson’s Scottish epic, bound with an early edition of Gray’s Poems.
£250
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JAYADEVA, and Friedrich MAJER (translator).
Gita-Govinda, ein Indisches Singspiel ... aus der Ursprache ins Englische...
Weimar, Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, 1802.
First and only separate edition of this uncommon German translation of Gita Govinda, a ‘devoutly erotic poem of the twelfth-century Bengali poet Jayadeva’ (ODNB).
£475
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JOURNEY TO EMMAUS (A).
A sacred Dialogue ...
Dublin: Printed and sold by Oliver Nelson ... 1751.
First edition, dedicated to Frederick, Prince of Wales, as Chancellor of Trinity College.
£650
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KEATS, John.
The Poems … arranged in chronological Order with a Preface by Sidney Colvin.
London, The Florence Press for Chatto & Windus, 1915.
No. 145 of 250 copies, in the deluxe vellum binding (for 45s); it could also be purchased in japon for a reduced price, and there was a trade edition on normal paper.
£1200
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KEATS, John.
Endymion. A Poetic Romance … with Engravings by John Buckland-Wright.
[London,] The Golden Cockerel Press, [1947].
No. 200 of 500 copies (the first 100 specially bound in full vellum); also found in brown buckram rather than red as here. Buckland-Wright’s greatest work and one of the most important Golden Cockerel publications, it was begun in 1943 but not completed until late 1947.
£1750
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KELLY, James.
Poems.
Glasgow, Printed by Aird & Coghill, and sold by John Menzies & Co, 1888.
First edition, a presentation copy, of a collection of poems many of which were written ‘before the age of nineteen’. There are a number of sonnets, as well as devotional and nature poetry, some folksongs, and topographical works on e.g. the Isle of Arran.
£100
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KIPLING, Rudyard.
Mesopotamia.
Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1917.
American copyright edition. A poem lamenting the losses of the First World War and calling for justice against the military and political leaders whose decisions and actions sent so many to their death.
£120
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KIPLING, Rudyard.
Great-Heart.
Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1919.
American copyright edition. In this poem, Kipling casts the recently deceased Theodore Roosevelt as the character Great-Heart from A Pilgrim’s Progress.
£120
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KIPLING, Rudyard.
A Kipling Note Book, No. 2.
New York, M.F. Mansfield & A. Wessels, 1899.
Contains notes on Kipling’s early works, and suppressed editions, and extracts from prefaces to a number of his works. The supplements comprise copies of the cover illustrations for Kipling’s earliest works, as published by the Indian Railway Library.
£25
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LACTANTIUS.
Opera.
[Venice,] Vindelinus de Spira, 1472.
Magnificent incunable edition of the works of Lactantius, a fine product of the first Venetian press, established in 1469 by Johannes de Spira and continued by his brother Vindelinus from 1470 until 1473. This was the fifth impression of the works of Lactantius, the hugely successful North African...
£25000
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LAING, Alexander.
The True Hero and Other Poems …
Glasgow, Morison Brothers, 1893.
First edition, scarce, a presentation copy, inscribed in a shaky hand ‘To Wm J. Robertson / with author’s regards / Alex Laing / 8-4-19’.
£375
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LAMB, Charles.
John Woodvil a Tragedy ... to which are added, Fragments of Burton, the Author of the Anatomy of Melancholy.
London: Printed by T. Plummer ... for G. and J. Robinson ... 1802.
First edition. John Woodvil was Charles Lamb’s first play (or dramatic poem), regarded by him at one time as his ‘finest effort’, a ‘medley (as I intend it to be a medley) of laughter and tears, prose and verse, and in some places rhyme, songs, wit, pathos, humour, and, if possible, sublimity’...
£1250
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LEWIS, Wyndham.
One-Way Song. With a Foreword by T. S. Eliot.
London, Methuen, [1960].
Second edition, ostensibly an unaltered reprint of the first edition of 1933, but in fact with some changes. Eliot’s foreword is new to this edition. Bridson had reviewed the original edition uncharitably as ‘versified pamphleteering’ in Poetry XLV: 3 (Dec 1934), accusing it of being a satirical...
£150
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LLOYD, Mary.
Brighton a Poem. Descriptive of the Place and Parts adjacent. And other Poems …
London: Printed for the Author. Sold by J. Harding … and by all the Booksellers at Brighton, Worthing, and Eastborne. 1809.
First and only edition of Mary Lloyd’s paean to the attractions of ‘Beauty, and fashion’s ever favourite seat’. The poem vividly portrays Brighton’s dazzling social round: the races, dances at the Assembly Rooms, plays at the theatre, and acrobatic shows at the circus. Particular attention...
£350
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[LOVELACE, Richard.]
Lucasta. Posthume Poems …
London. Printed by William Godbid for Clement Darby. 1659
First edition, a wholly different work from Lucasta 1649, published by the poet’s brother Dudley Posthumus Lovelace, with ‘Elegies sacred to the Memory of the Author’ at the end.
£1850
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LUCRETIUS.
Titi Lucretii Cari de rerum natura libri VI. Ad optimorum exemplarium veritatem exacti. Quae praeterea in hac...
Padua, Giuseppe Comino [for Volpi], 2 January 1721.
First Volpi–Comino edition of Lucretius’s famous materialist and Epicurean poem, the most notable Italian edition of the eighteenth century. The present work is the product of the long-running and fruitful collaboration between the printer Giuseppe Comino and the scholars Giovanni Antonio...
£450