THE LIFE AND POSTHUMOUS WRITINGS OF WILLIAM COWPER (TWO VOLUMES COMPLETE)
Chichester, England: Printed by J. Seagrave, 1803. Leather-bound. Two matching volumes: Quarto, 10.5 in.x 8.2 in., pp. 413, 422. Gorgeous full tree calf. Gilt title on red & black title panels to spine. Surface chipping on spines. Clean pages.
Volume I: pp. 413. Illustrated with frontis. Front cover nearly detached. 1.5 inch chip at head of spine; tail of spine missing headband.. Front free endpaper detached but present. Previous owner's signature, dated 1830, and previous owner's inscription with a four-line handwritten quote of Camus to front pastedown.
Volume II: pp. 422. Missing headcap to spine. Previous owner's signature, dated 1830, previous owner's ink stamp, and bookseller's sticker to front pastedown. Good. Item #81729
Hayley, a close collaborator, was the principle biographer of the poet Cowper, who suffered intermittant attacks of madness and meloncholia. Valuable for the preserved correspondence.
William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) was the foremost poet of the generation between Alexander Pope and William Wordsworth. For several decades, he had probably the largest readership of any English poet. From 1782, when his first major volume appeared, to 1837, the year in which Robert Southey completed the monumental Life and Works of Cowper, more than 100 editions of his poems were published in Britain and almost 50 in America. (Poetry Foundation).
Price: $250.00