A Controversial Memoir of Time Spent with Byron and Shelley at Pisa, Offered in its Remarkably Well-Preserved Publisher's Boards

CONVERSATIONS OF LORD BYRON: NOTED DURING A RESIDENCE WITH HIS LORDSHIP AT PISA, IN THE YEAR 1821 AND 1822.

(BINDINGS - PUBLISHER'S BOARDS). (BYRON, GEORGE GORDON, LORD). MEDWIN, THOMAS.

(London: Printed for Henry Colburn, 1824). 235 x 145 mm. (9 1/8 x 5 3/4"). xxiii, [1] 351, [1], ciii, [9] pp. A New Edition.

Original brown paper boards, printed label on spine, edges untrimmed. With folding facsimile letter frontispiece. Pastedown with bookplate of Thomas Fothergill Esq. of Kingthorp; front free endpaper with gift inscription to Fothergill from Conyers Hudson dated 1824; occasional marginal pencil markings. Randolph, p. 109. Upper joint with short split at head, tail of spine with tiny tear, light stain on front cover, corners rubbed, light offsetting to title and frontispiece, other trivial defects, but AN EXTRAORDINARILY FINE COPY, with only the most negligible imperfections.

In its extremely well-preserved publisher's binding, this edition of the popular though controversial memoir of the author's friendship with Byron contains the first full publication of one of Byron's poems. Thomas Medwin (1788-1869) was a cousin and friend of Percy Shelley, who introduced him to Lord Byron, and in 1820, after Medwin had completed a tour of duty in India with the 25th light dragoons, he accepted an invitation by Shelley to visit him and Byron in Italy. The three spent much of 1821-22 at Pisa writing and conversing. Medwin recorded their discussions in his journal, and in 1824, after Shelley's and Byron's deaths, he published his record of those conversations--despite the objections of Mary Shelley and others (particularly Byron's mistress Lady Caroline Lamb) on the grounds that the information included was too personal. Their publication met with immediate success. Ours, the "new edition," was the third edition, published a few months after the first. Francis Lewis Randolph tells us that this third edition includes the first full publication of Byron's poem "The Irish Avatar." Byron, a supporter of Irish independence, composed these verses in September of 1821 critiquing the warm reception the Irish people and politicians had given King George IV on a state visit to Ireland. He was inspired by his friend Thomas Moore's "Lines on the Entry of the Austrians into Naples, 1821," which angrily condemned the Neapolitans for the failure of the Neapolitan Revolution. The present copy is from the library of Thomas Fothergill of Kingthorpe in the North Riding of Yorkshire. John Conyers Hudson, who gave him this book, had married a relation, possibly Fothergill's sister, in 1817; this relationship is supported by the fact that his papers, held at the Hull History Centre archives, include a series of letters from Fothergill to Conyers Hudson and his wife, detailing his travels and his will. While we have been unable to locate much information about Fothergill, he was evidently an excellent caretaker of his books: this copy in its original boards has come down to us in exceptionally fine condition. (ST20598)

Price: $550.00