pope ayre william (4 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Two volumes, 8vo, engraved frontispiece portrait and pp. xii, [ii], 340, [16] index; [iv], 389, [13] index; with 12 other plates; contemporary calf, gilt, spines gilt, red morocco labels (a bit worn, joints slightly cracked). First edition of the first full-scale biography of Pope, curiously presented with a leaf containing a royal patent, signed by the Duke of Newcastle as Secretary of State. Straus discusses this work at some length (The Unspeakable Curll, pp. 193-8), and concludes that 'amongst the hundred worst books the Memoirs must be given a high place' (but he was writing almost a century ago: he could not have imagined what competition there would be in the later 20th and early 21st centuries). In his dismissive appraisal, Straus assumes that 'William Ayre' is a fiction, and that the true author was Edmund Curll. The truth lies somewhere in between: William Ayre does seem to have been a real person, because in 1739 his name was affixed to a poem titled Truth, attacking the Essay on Man (Foxon A377). However, contemporary readers assumed, no doubt correctly, that Curll was closely involved with the publication of his book. The text does display Curll's characteristic lack of coherent organisation, but at the same time it is not unsympathetic to Pope; nor does it entirely gloss over Curll's own sometimes less than savoury practices. Baines and Rogers, in their recent biography of Curll, style Straus's opinion 'too hasty a verdict', and allow for some merit: 'As a repository of information, the two volumes easily outdistance anything produced on Pope up to this time, including Jacob's Lives of the Poets and the two instant lives from 1744. Much of the information happens to be accurate, too' (p. 305). Some copies of this work have a duplicate of the portrait of Pope in volume I as a frontispiece in the second volume as well, as called for in the 'directions to the binder for placing the cutts'; the same list, however, omits the final portrait in the second volume, of Lord Bolingbroke. Griffith 606. Provenance: contemporary signature of Cath: Williams in each volume.

Hardcover. Zustand: Good. 2 volumes. Both volumes bound in original full leather, with raised cords on the spine and volume numbers stamped in gold. Original black leather title labels chipped off. Both bindings are damaged (see below), but both are ruggedly attractive all the same. Volume 1. xiii + 340 pages + index. Front cover and all pages up to 15 detached (those pages are all still attached to the front cover). Bookplate on inside front cover with the name "Eben J. Brewer." Booksellers notes in pencil on the first blank page and part of a much older notation as well, but that older one is chipped off at the top corner. Name signed at the top of the first page of text (Royal Patent) is Geo. Clavering. The signature is dated 1745. Volume 2. 389 pages + index. Text block broke in two in this volume as well, this one between pages 92/93. Same bookplate on inside front cover. Front hinge is reinforced with white binders tape. Name "Geo. Clavering" signed on the second blank page. There was an Eben J. Brewer who served as a volunteer Civil War nurse in 1864 and went on to become a lawyer and then ran the US Postal operation in Cuba, where he died in 1898. His brother lived in New York. His father was a NY Congressman. The bookplate shows a small sailboat off a wooded point of land if this is the same Eben Brewer whose obituary is in the NY Times in 1898, the bookplate much have been added towards the end of his life, as it doesn't look like it's from the 1870s or 1880s. The name signed in the books, "Geo. Clavering 1745" may be more interesting, as there was a George Clavering who was the godson of George II, and became the Earl of Cowper, a well known patron of the arts but it's not clear if this is that same George Clavering. It is a research project that I will leave for the next owner of the book.

Two volumes, 8vo, engraved frontispiece portrait and pp. xii, 340, [16] index; [iv], 389, [13] index; with 12 other plates; contemporary calf, spines with red morocco labels. First edition of the first full-scale biography of Pope, curiously presented with a leaf containing a royal patent, signed by the Duke of Newcastle as Secretary of State. Straus discusses this work at some length (The Unspeakable Curll, pp. 193-8), and concludes that 'amongst the hundred worst books the Memoirs must be given a high place'. (But he was writing a century ago: he could not have imagined what competition there would be in the later 20th and early 21st centuries.) In his dismissive appraisal, Straus assumes that 'William Ayre' is a fiction, and that the true author was Edmund Curll. The truth lies somewhere in between: William Ayre does seem to have been a real person, because in 1739 his name was affixed to a poem titled Truth, attacking the Essay on Man (Foxon A377). However, contemporary readers assumed, no doubt correctly, that Curll was closely involved with the publication of his book. The text does display Curll's characteristic lack of coherent organisation, but at the same time it is not unsympathetic to Pope; nor does it entirely gloss over Curll's own sometimes less than savoury practices. Baines and Rogers, in their recent biography of Curll, style Straus's opinion 'too hasty a verdict', and allow for some merit: 'As a repository of information, the two volumes easily outdistance anything produced on Pope up to this time, including Jacob's Lives of the Poets and the two instant lives from 1744. Much of the information happens to be accurate, too' (p. 305). Some copies of this work have a duplicate of the portrait of Pope in volume I as a frontispiece in the second volume as well, as called for in the 'directions to the binder for placing the cutts'; the same list, however, omits the portrait of Lord Bolingbroke, which is here bound near the beginning of volume I. Griffith 606. Provenance: Armorial bookplate in each volume of Sir George Shuckburgh (1751-1804), later Shuckburgh Evelyn, baronet. Shuckburgh merits an entry in ODNB for his scientific work, but to book collectors he is much better known as the owner of a magnificent library, including a Gutenberg Bible, and other important early printing.