Inscribed by Swinburne to His Cousin
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor.
London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company, n.d., ca. 1900.
Price: $1,000.00
About the item
Lynton Edition. Photogravure frontispiece portrait of the author, wood-engraved illustrations by F. Armstrong, W. Small, and W.H.J. Boot. xvi; 527, [1]pp. 4to. Inscribed by Swinburne to His Cousin. Contemporary vellum, upper cover and spine blocked in red and dark brown, t.e.g. Light soiling, two marks to spine. Provenance: Algernon Charles Swinburne (gift inscription to cousin Mary Charlotte Julia Leith).
Item #267410
Inscribed on the front free endpaper, “Mary C.J. Leith, from her affectionate cousin, A.C. Swinburne. April 1908.”
An evocative association copy — Mary C. J. Leith (ca. 1840-1926, née Gordon) was Swinburne’s cousin and they were close during their childhood. Swinburne was apparently devastated when it was announced that Gordon was to marry Robert W. Disney Leith, which she did in 1865. The enduring relationship between John Ridd and Lorna Doone, established when the former was 12, would have resonated with Swinburne, and perhaps he hoped to remind his cousin of their own shared childhood with the gift of this book.
