Details
Poems, the Blairhame copy
John Keats, 1817
KEATS, John (1795-1821). Poems. London: C. & J. Ollier, 1817.
The fine Blairhame copy of the first edition of Keats’s first book of poetry, originally from the library of the poet Robert Calder Campbell. Dedicated to Leigh Hunt, Poems features many of Keats’s most significant early works, including “I stood tiptoe on a little hill...,” “To Hope,” “Sleep and Poetry,” three verse epistles, plus 17 sonnets and other works. Among the sonnets is “On first looking into Chapman's Homer,” often regarded as Keats's first major poem. As Sidney Colvin remarks, the book “is full of immaturities, but also of buoyancy and promise; striking the note of rebellion against the poetical methods and conventions of the eighteenth century more vigorously than it had been struck since the publication of the 'Lyrical ballads' twenty years before...” (DNB). While it received favorable notices from some critics, the book was a dismal commercial failure and the publishers claimed to have found it necessary to refund some dissatisfied purchasers. Its dedication to Hunt ultimately helped turn critical opinion against Keats as a member of the "Cockney school" of poetry. MacGillivray A.1.
Octavo (161 x 195mm). Half title, title page with woodcut portrait of Spenser, fly titles preceding each section/poem. Contemporary morocco gilt presentation binding, gilt and blind floral tooling on sides, gilt spine (lightly rubbed at extremities). Custom chemise and full morocco slipcase. Provenance: occasional corrections and underlining to text, light manuscript notes on final blank - Robert Calder Campbell, 1798-1857, British soldier and writer (inscription) - George Merryweather (bookplate) - Natalie Knowlton Blair, 1887-1951 (morocco Blairhame label; her sale, 3 December 2004, lot 181a).
Details
Poems, the Blairhame copy
John Keats, 1817
KEATS, John (1795-1821). Poems. London: C. & J. Ollier, 1817.
The fine Blairhame copy of the first edition of Keats’s first book of poetry, originally from the library of the poet Robert Calder Campbell. Dedicated to Leigh Hunt, Poems features many of Keats’s most significant early works, including “I stood tiptoe on a little hill...,” “To Hope,” “Sleep and Poetry,” three verse epistles, plus 17 sonnets and other works. Among the sonnets is “On first looking into Chapman's Homer,” often regarded as Keats's first major poem. As Sidney Colvin remarks, the book “is full of immaturities, but also of buoyancy and promise; striking the note of rebellion against the poetical methods and conventions of the eighteenth century more vigorously than it had been struck since the publication of the 'Lyrical ballads' twenty years before...” (DNB). While it received favorable notices from some critics, the book was a dismal commercial failure and the publishers claimed to have found it necessary to refund some dissatisfied purchasers. Its dedication to Hunt ultimately helped turn critical opinion against Keats as a member of the "Cockney school" of poetry. MacGillivray A.1.
Octavo (161 x 195mm). Half title, title page with woodcut portrait of Spenser, fly titles preceding each section/poem. Contemporary morocco gilt presentation binding, gilt and blind floral tooling on sides, gilt spine (lightly rubbed at extremities). Custom chemise and full morocco slipcase. Provenance: occasional corrections and underlining to text, light manuscript notes on final blank - Robert Calder Campbell, 1798-1857, British soldier and writer (inscription) - George Merryweather (bookplate) - Natalie Knowlton Blair, 1887-1951 (morocco Blairhame label; her sale, 3 December 2004, lot 181a).
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