George brumell (9 Ergebnisse)

Hardcover. Zustand: Very Good. 2nd Edition. 2nd ed. (n.d. 1975). 91pp + ads. Original blue cloth with gilt lettering to upper board and spine. VG copy.

138pp + ads. reprint ed., fine in original blue cloth.

91pp + ads. 2nd ed., short annotation to first page, otherwise fine in blue boards.

91pp + ads. 1st ed., some pencil annotations otherwise clean in worn original card covers which are becoming detached Scarce.

91pp + ads. 1st ed., clean in slightly worn original card covers. Scarce.

Hardcover. Zustand: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Octavo, 201pp, +7pp ads. Light blue cloth with black text, shelf worn to edges and corners, a few light stains, lightly tanned throughout, no marks or inscriptions. Interleaved Edition.

Zustand: fine. 91pp. Nette hardcover, alleen een kleine beschadiging op de achterzijde.

30pp. 1st ed., fine in card covers. Very scarce.

Despite the four years (1840-1844) Howitt spent in the colony with his brother the entomologist Godfrey Howitt (1800-1873), the present letter has nothing to do with Australia. The letter is addressed to the editors of 'The Aurora Borealis: A Literary Annual edited by Members of the Society of Friends'. This periodical was the work of a group of Quakers in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with George Atley Brumell (1800-1877) one of the founding editors. Another of those involved was Joseph Watson (1807-1874), named in the letter's address. Howitt, as the present letter reveals, was one of a number of prominent Quakers to contribute. Only one number of the periodical was published under the title 'The Aurora Borealis', in Newcastle and London in 1833; but the following year a second number appeared with the title 'The Friends' Annual; or Aurora Borealis for 1834'. No other numbers were published. The University of Illinois holds a collection of manuscripts relating to the magazine. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium, addressed, with remains of seal in red wax, on reverse of second leaf, to 'Editors of the "Aurora Borealis" | Care of Joseph Watson | St. Nicholas' Church-yard | Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.' Signed 'Richard Howitt.' In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with closed tears to second leaf repaired with strips of paper. The recto of the first leaf is filled with the first six of the seven five-line stanzas of the poem, with the page headed 'Esteemed Friends | Editors of the "Aurora Borealis"'. The seventh stanza is on the reverse of the leaf, at the head of the second page. Each of the seven stanzas of the poem ends with the refrain 'The Aurora Borealis'. The poem is unpublished, and the first and last stanzas give an indication of its tone. The first reads: 'Now the days are dark and dreary | Now the nights are long and weary | Very welcome, very cheery, | With the glory it doth trail is | The Aurora Borealis.' The last stanza reads: 'Blessings on ye for the blessing! | Tome of many a heart's caressing, - | Past a homely bard's expressing, | Balm of many a bosom's bale is | The Aurora Borealis.' The letter itself begins without salutation after the last stanza, at the head of the second page, and Howitt himself concedes the mediocre nature of his poem: 'So far not "so good" - but "so long." To speak plain truth setting aside poetry - "poets are such liars, and take all colours like the hands of dyers" says Lord Byron, yet, in plain prose, I have been much pleased with uyour little tome.' He comments approvingly on some of the volume's contributions, before continuing: 'I must confess that when I first met with the title of the book in the Public Prints it struck me as flashy and unsubustantial and I believe I expressed my feeling to be such but the work itself has altered my opinion.' The volume has however left him with some 'dissapointment': 'I hoped to meet with an Essay from Thomas Knott, and with a Poem of Montgomery's if not with one from the pen of the great Lake Poet, Wordsworth. And I have also vainly sought for something with Thomas Wilkinson's signature.' The editors have 'so many gems' that Howitt's own contributions to the volume 'shrink into comparative significance'. He does not blame them 'for making the last line of Eventide, if more correct, less vigorous. If I remember right it was "To feeling and to slinking hearts." Many would prefer the line as it is printed, but I would turn from the many to the few and I have Wordsworth on my side of the question He says not "thinking minds" - but "To pipe a simple song for thinking hearts." He ends with the gentle reproof: 'I perceive another or two verbal variations not of any consequence but they would have been as well as they were.' He was also borther to William and Mary Howitt, both writers.…