Byron’s Heroic Poem
Mazeppa.
London: John Murray, 1819.
Price: $1,750.00
About the item
First edition, first issue, with imprint on p. [70], leaf of advertisements and the 8 page catalogue, dated July, 1819. Half title present. 69, [3] pp. + [8] pp ads dated July, 1819. 1 vols. 8vo. Byron’s Heroic Poem. Original drab gray wrappers, uncut. Some chips from spine, slightly cocked, but internally quite clean. In half morocco slipcase. Randolph, p. 70; Wise “Byron” I, pp. 131-2.
Item #307343
The 'Fragment' of a novel (which appears on pp. 57-69) appended to Mazeppa was there introduced without the sanction of the author. On March 20, 1820, Byron wrote to Murray; "I shall not allow you to play the tricks you did last year with the prose you post-scripted to Mazeppa, which I sent you not to be published, if not in a periodical paper, and there you tacked it, without a word of explanation, and be damned to you". (Wise).
