|
<
Go back
CHARLES DICKENS: A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HIS FIRST AMERICAN EDITIONS 1836 - 1870.
Smith, Walter E.
|
|
|
This significant work identifies the first and early American editions of Charles Dickens's novels and Sketches by Boz and traces their publishing history, including various impressions and sub-editions, from 1836 to 1870, the year of Dickens's death. Each of the entries provides detailed textual data and binding descriptions and is supplemented by photographic reproductions of title pages and bindings. The notes contain interesting comments about the novels, including their appearances in newspapers and journals, typographical points, and payments made to Dickens.
The bibliography was compiled from firsthand examinations of the books at major libraries and institutions throughout the country, in private collections, and in the possession of several rare book dealers. The content complements and stylistically conforms to the author's previous two-volume bibliography on Dickens's English editions. The book is an indispensable source of reference for libraries, collectors, booksellers, researchers, and students of Victorian literature since no other work of this magnitude on Dickens's American editions has ever been undertaken or published.
 E-mail/Export ?
 |
THE TWO FORGERS, A BIOGRAPHY OF HARRY BUXTON FORMAN & THO...
by Collins, John
First edition, one of 57 special numbered and signed copies (50 for sale) bound thus and containing additional material and available exclusively from Oak Knoll and Maggs. In an introductory note John Collins describes the additional material in this special edition as follows: (1)The life of Alfred Forman by his brother, written in 1926 but hitherto unpublished. In 1973 (Quartich Catalogue 926) Graham Pollard christened Alfred Forman the `third conspirator'. This was on the basis of his initials on the proofs of two chimerical wrappers for Morris pamphlets. Later that year, staying at Waddesdon with Graham, I upbraided him and suggested that initials on two proofs of a wrapper were an uncommonly slender thread on which to convict. Graham agreed and I think we must remove Alfred from his position as third man. (2)Alfred's previously printed sonnet AT BROWNING'S GRAVE 1899. This is without imprint: who printed it? There was a copy in the Forman sale (Sotheby's 10 April 1972, lot 200: £35) described as printed on John Dickinson paper while the B.M. copy was cited as one of five on Whatman. Our copies have only the watermark and seem therefore to be a third variant. Sold with the 1972 lot was a letter from Alfred to his nephew Maurice stating of the leaflet, `It is very scarce indeed and I have only 2 copies that I know of...'. The present bundle comprised 66 copies, and each one is meticulously costed in pencil by Maggs. (3)A colophon claiming a limitation of 50 copies, perhaps from the Browning bibliography of 1897. The fact that 64 copies were in the bundle may be thought to throw some doubt on the limitation.
|
|
|
