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POEMS.
(London: J. Johnson, 1808). 220 x 135 mm. (8 5/8 x 5 3/8"). Two volumes. New Edition.
VERY PRETTY CONTEMPORARY SCARLET STRAIGHT-GRAIN MOROCCO, covers with gilt-ruled frame decorated with multiple overlapping gilt door handle tools and floral cornerpieces, central panel with gilt-ruled lozenge enclosed by gilt rules and blind floral rolls, raised bands, compartments gilt, wide turn-ins ruled in gilt and with repeating flower motif in blind and small gilt circles in the centers, green inlaid cornerpieces with gilt tooling, blue watered silk endpapers, all edges gilt. With eight plates after Henry Fuseli, including frontispiece to each volume. Verso of front free endpaper with armorial bookplate of Lewis Way. ◆Spines a little sunned, corners a bit worn and tending to turn inward, light scuffing to extremities, plates lightly foxed, but the text extremely clean and the pleasing bindings with minor issues only.
This is an attractively illustrated and handsomely bound edition of the finely crafted poetry of William Cowper (1731-1800), the most notable English poet before the Romantics in terms of a tendency to be confessional in one's verse. Given the fact that he was institutionalized and that he several times attempted suicide, these self-revelatory poems can easily be seen as a kind of therapeutic experience, and it is testimony to the complexity of his personality that so much of Cowper's verse is light, conversational, and epigrammatic. His poems range widely, from religious reflections to translations of Homer to poetry inspired by a lady's suggestion that he could write on any topic, including a sofa (see vol. II, p. 1). The plates here were designed by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), a Swiss-born painter who lived mainly in England. He was best known for his paintings exploring the supernatural, as well as his influence on the young William Blake. DNB calls him "A superb and intensely dramatic draughtsman . . . notorious for his sensational, demonic, irrational, and bizarre subjects," leading "the surrealists to claim him as a forerunner." Though unsigned, the bindings here are extremely attractive, with tasteful gilding and luxurious touches such as wide, decorative turn-ins and watered silk endleaves. This copy was previously owned by Lewis Way, an Evangelical reverend who made it his mission to promote Christianity among the Jews. It was his particular belief that returning Jews to the Holy Land would fulfill a biblical prophecy, and to this end he secured several audiences with Tsar Alexander I in the attempt to persuade him to the cause. His home at Stansted Park reportedly contained a library that included rare Judaica and Hebraica. (ST15731c)
Price: $1,250.00