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Baillie, Joanna (editor).
A Collection of Poems, Chiefly Manuscript, and From Living Authors.
Publisher: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London;
Date of Publication: 1823
Stock Code: 6412
FIRST EDITION. Octavo, pp xliv, 330, [2] blank, 4 catalogue. Original publishers grey paper-covered boards with printed white title label to spine. Fore & lower edge untrimmed. Covers lightly rubbed with minor wear at spine tips and bruised corners. A little toning & foxing, mainly to endpapers and catalogue; tidy ownership inscription to ffep; pp viii-x partially loose. A very clean copy. Important anthology of Romantic verse which includes the first printing of two Wordsworth sonnets “Not love nor war” and “ A volant tribe of bards”, a poetic drama “Mac Duff’s Cross” by Sir Walter Scott and contributions from many poets like Robert Southey, Charles Johnston, and the editor herself. Baillie (1762-1851) issued the anthology as a fund raising exercise on behalf of a widowed friend with daughters to support, and the roll-call of subscribers lists the great and good of the day beginning with His Majesty the King and including many aristocratic families; notable in the list are Sir Walter Scott himself who purchased 10 copies, and Christopher Wordsworth the youngest brother of the poet. Baillie was critically acclaimed in her lifetime as a dramatist and poet, and was at the centre of the contemporary literary scene. An attractive unsophisticated copy. £85.00