English Literature
Contact Donovan Rees or Zach Larsen
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.
-
AIKEN, Conrad.
Thee.
New York, George Braziller, 1967.
First trade edition, inscribed ‘For Geoffrey and Joyce [Bridson] / this little hymn of love / from Conrad / 1968’.
£250
-
AIKEN, Conrad.
Selected Poems.
New York, Oxford University Press, 1964.
Second printing (first 1961), inscribed: ‘For Geoffrey from Conrad and Savannah with a Hosanna 1968’. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Aiken spent winters there later in his life. It was in Savannah in April 1968 that Bridson recorded the unbroadcast interviews which provide a valuable insight into the...
£150
-
[ANON.]
Quia Amore Langueo.
[Colophon:] Chiswick, Caradoc Press, 1902.
One of 250 copies on paper (there were also 20 on vellum), printed from a fifteenth-century manuscript at Lambeth Palace Library.
£75
-
ARNOLD, Edwin, Sir.
Enfin: A Poem, hitherto unpublished ...
New York, Thomas Perry Stricker for Julian Biddulph Arnold, February 1936.
First edition, one of only fifty copies hand-printed by the self-taught printer Thomas Perry Stricker, presented by the editor – the author’s son – and accompanied by his autograph note regarding the printing and planned circulation of the poem.
£350
-
A[RNOLD, Matthew].
The Strayed Reveller, and other Poems. By A.
London: B. Fellowes …1849
First edition of Arnold’s first book, apart from the Rugby and Oxford prize poems Alaric at Rome and Cromwell. To conceal his authorship as ‘A.’ suggests a certain reticence about the volume, even though it contains a number of his finest early poems, including ‘The Forsaken Merman’. Only 500...
£600
-
AUSTIN, Alfred.
‘The Poetry of the Period: Mr Browning’ [and] ‘The Poetry of the Future’, from Temple Bar,
London, October 1869.
A fascinating and characteristic tract volume from the library of William Michael Rossetti, collecting publications and articles relating to the Rossettis and their circle.
£1500
-
BEARDSLEY, Aubrey, art editor; Henry HARLAND, literary editor.
The Yellow Book. An Illustrated Quarterly. Volume I...
London [– & New York], Elkin Mathews & John Lane [– John Lane, The Bodley Head], and Boston, Copeland & Day, April 1894 [− April 1897].
An excellent set of the first edition of The Yellow Book, the decade-defining illustrated quarterly that captured the spirit of decadence and aestheticism and gave its name to ‘the Yellow Nineties’.
£1750
-
BEATTIE, James.
Original Poems and Translations.
London: Printed [by F. Douglas, Aberdeen?]; and sold by A. Millar, 1760.
First edition of Beattie’s first collection. It is always described as his first book, but it is in fact preceded by an unique Elegy on Mrs Walker (1759), discovered by us in 1991 and now in the National Library of Scotland (but still not listed by ESTC).
£450
-
BEAUMONT, Joseph.
Psyche: or Loves Mysterie in XX. Canto’s: displaying the Intercourse betwixt Christ and the Soule …
London, Printed by John Dawson for George Boddington, 1648.
First edition of this lengthy religious epic representing the journey of the personified Soul from England to the Holy Land and back, written by Beaumont, one of the Royalist fellows ejected from Cambridge in 1644.
£1250
-
BECKETT, Samuel.
Poems in English.
New York, Grove Press, [1963].
First American edition of Beckett’s first collection of poems, a presentation copy inscribed by Beckett on the title-page, ‘For Calvin and Joann’.
£1500
-
BELLAMY, [Daniel].
Ethic Amusements. By Mr. Bellamy. Revised by his Son D. Bellamy, M.A. Chaplain of Petersham and Kew, in Surry …
London, W. Faden, for the Author, 1768.
First edition, Lord Camden’s copy of the scarce fine paper issue, of a collection of the miscellaneous writings of Daniel Bellamy Sr (b. 1687), edited by his son, also Daniel (1715–1788), and dedicated to the King; it is perhaps best known for the fine plates by George Bickham, which include a suite...
£1350
-
BLACKMORE, Richard, Sir.
King Arthur. An Heroick Poem. In twelve Books … to which is annexed an Index, explaining the...
London, Awnsham and John Churchil, and Jacob Tonson, 1697.
First edition. Blackmore’s first Arthurian epic Prince Arthur (1695), modelled after the Aeneid and based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, proved a commercial if not critical success. Arthur was a transparent parallel to William III, and William presented Blackmore with a gold medal and a knighthood...
£650
-
BOWLES, William Lisle.
The Missionary: a Poem … Second Edition, corrected and enlarged.
London, [T. Davison for] John Murray, 1815.
Second, enlarged edition (first 1813), a handsome copy, of this poetic attack on Spanish rule in Latin America, an important influence on Byron.
£750
-
BROME, Alexander.
Songs and other Poems … The second Edition corrected and enlarged.
London, Printed for Henry Brome … 1664.
Second edition, adding much new material including the poems ‘To his friend Thomas Stanley Esq. on his Odes’, ‘Cromwell’s Panegyrick’, and the salacious ‘Record in Rhyme’; eight songs; and some new commendatory verses in addition to the one by Isaak Walton. Also new is a commendatory letter...
£500
-
BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett.
Poems before Congress …
London, [Bradbury and Evans for] Chapman and Hall, 1860.
First edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s slender collection of seven poems on the cause of Italian independence, and one attacking slavery in the United States (‘A Curse for a Nation’), published a year before her death.
£200
-
[BROWN, Thomas.]
The Bower of Spring, with other Poems …
Edinburgh, Archibald Constable & Co., and London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817.
First edition of this lively verse collection, with a poem on the parliamentary causes of climate change.
£375
-
[BYRON, George Gordon, Lord].
Lara, a Tale. [and] Jacqueline, a Tale [by Samuel Rogers].
London, Printed for John Murray …, 1814.
First edition, Randolph’s fourth variant (with the crooked roman numeral on p. 82 and the fallen period on p. 20). By 1814 Byron was heavily pressed by debts, having previously refused payment for his poems. For Lara, the fourth of Byron’s Levantine poems, published on the back of The Corsair...
£400
-
BYRON, George Gordon, Lord Byron; Franz THEREMIN, translator.
Hebräische Gesänge. Aus dem Englischen … Mit beigedrucktem...
Berlin, Duncker und Humblot, 1820.
First edition in German (and first dual-language edition) of Byron’s Hebrew Melodies (1815), translated by the theologian Franz Theremin.
£450
-
[CAMBRIDGE.]
Tract volume of nine scarce works of poetry, including two installation odes on the occasion of HRH William Frederick...
London and Cambridge, 1765-1823.
A sammelband of Cambridge poetry, including:
£1200
-
CAMPBELL, Thomas.
Gertrude of Wyoming; a Pennsylvanian Tale. And other Poems.
London, T. Bensley, for the Author ... 1809.
First edition of Campbell’s most re-printed poem, based on a massacre of American patriots by British forces and their Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) allies in 1778. Its portrayal of ‘pastoral innocence evoked only to be destroyed by the savagery of war (embodied in this case by Mohawk allies of the British)...
£650