Beschreibung:

MELVILLE, HERMAN]. [TENNANT, WILLIAM]. Anster Fair, a Poem. In Six Cantos. Edinburgh: Printed for William Cockburn...By Oliver & Boyd... 1812. 8vo, original drab boards, uncut, title hand-lettered on spine, extremities a bit worn, front cover loosening, a few marginal stains; blue half-morocco slipcase . FIRST EDITION of the Scottish poet and linguist's best-known (and very popular) work, written in a stanza form invented by himself and later used by Byron in Don Juan . MELVILLE'S COPY, with his pencilled ownership inscription ("Herman Melville/N.Y. 1875") at top of title-leaf verso, with Tennant's name supplied by Melville in pencil on title-page, with a two-word pencilled annotation by him at bottom of the first "Preface" page, with a few pencilled markings on pp. 6 and 7, and with the following note by him in pencil on blank page facing title: "This poem gave the hint of style to Frere in the 'Monks & Giants' (Whistlecroft) which suggested to Lord Byron the style and stanza of Don Juan -- acknowledged by the last named poet." Melville refers to John Hookham Frere's poetic satire The Monks and the Giants , 1817-18, which influenced Byron. At the time he inscribed this copy Melville was working on Carel , his own book-length poem. Leyda, Melville Log , p. 745; Sealts, Melville's Reading (1988), no. 500a and p. 120 (not examined by Sealts -- description taken from a 1922 Anderson Galleries catalogue).