A Superb Copy in Boards

Endymion: A Poetic Romance.

London: for Taylor and Hessey, 1818.

Price: $20,000.00


About the item

First edition, second issue with imprint on verso of half-title reading "T. Miller, Printer, Noble Street, Cheapside." and with errata leaf in two states. ix, [iv], 207, [1], [4, ads date 1 May 1818]. 1 vols. 8vo. A Superb Copy in Boards. Uncut in original publisher's boards, probably later printed paper title label to spine reading "Endymion / A /Poetic/ Romance"). Light wear to covers, some sporadic foxing and toning to text. Bookplate. Fine. In a custom brown cloth clamshell box. MacGillivray A2; Ashley III:13; Tinker 1419; Hayward 232.

Item #305728

First edition, second issue, a superb copy in original boards of the second of only three lifetime publications by Keats, comprising his longest single sustained poem, famous for its opening line: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” So savage and malevolent were the reviews of this poem by Blackwoods and the Quarterly––“Lockhart found it exquisitely funny that an apothecary, a fellow who confessedly knew no Greek, who had to read Homer in a translation, should venture on a classic theme” (MacGillivray)––that Keats’ supporters thereafter blamed the reviewers for Keats’ early death. This copy has the second-issue imprint to the verso of the half-title “T. Miller, Printer, Noble Street, Cheapside” and includes both states of the errata leaf (pp. xi-xii) with 5-line errata and 1-line erratum.