PAUL'S LETTERS TO HIS KINFOLK.

[SCOTT, SIR WALTER.]

(Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, 1816). 230 x 133 mm. (9 x 5 3/4"). [2] p.l., 468 pp. FIRST EDITION.

Excellent retrospective lightly grained half calf over marbled paper boards, raised bands, spine gilt in compartments, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. Illegible early ink ownership inscription to the half title. Todd & Bowden 89Aa. Spine slightly sunned, a few leaves vaguely foxed, one or two spots, other trivial imperfections, but quite a fine copy--the text clean, bright, and fresh, the margins extremely ample, and the binding with scarcely any wear.

This series of letters makes up a lightly fictionalized account of Sir Walter Scott’s visit to the site of the Battle of Waterloo two months following the bloodshed there. Scott (1771-1832) had gone to see the battlefield as part of his research for the poem "The Field of Waterloo" (1815), which was written as a charity effort, with partial proceeds going to the widows of soldiers killed in the battle. Composed the same year and published in 1816, "Paul’s Letters to his Kinfolk" was "no less popular" than the poem, according to Todd and Bowden. Despite this, like many of Scott’s early prose works, it was published anonymously. While not the most enduring of Scott's works, this account remains of real historical value due to its firsthand description of the business of battlefield tourism that sprang up following the Battle of Waterloo, a phenomenon that directly contributed to the near-immediate mythical status achieved by that conflict. (ST19567-165)

Price: $200.00