A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF THE LIVING AUTHORS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
Comprising Literary Memoirs and Anecdotes of Their Lives; and a Chronological Register of Their Publications, With the Number of Editions Printed; including Notices of some Foreign Writers whose Works have occasionally been published in England. Illustrated by a Variety of Communications from Persons of the first Eminence in the World of Letters.
- London: Henry Colburn, 1816.
- 8vo.
- Full calf, re-backed with cloth.
- viii, 449 pages
Price: $125.00 other currencies
Order Nr. 97841
"Mr. [Frederic] Shoberl proceeded to assure me, in the presence of his son, that the work was written by [John] Watkins as far as the letter F -- that some dispute with the publishers then arose -- that the materials were therefore handed over to himself -- and that he completed the work as it now appears." Bolton Corney. Notes & queries (1)11: 34, 1855." A note has been pasted to page 449 that this volume is also attributed to William Upcott. With the bookplate and pencil signature of Gavin Bridson. Boards are worn, corners bumped.
First edition of a fascinating contemporary reference work. It includes one of the earliest biographical references to William Blake "an eccentric and very ingenious artist", as well as a large number of writers such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Byron, and hundreds of other authors forgotten today, but (amazingly) no Shelley (Mary or Percy), no Keats, and no Jane Austen. Bentley, Blake Books, 2929: "references to Blake under William Hayley, W. Blake, and William Blake". Some claim Watkins authored A-K and Shoberl the rest.