LOWES, John Livingston (1867-1945)

The Road to Xanadu : A Study in the Ways of the Imagination [Signed and Unopened]

Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1927. Hardcover. Limited Edition (one of 300 copies) of Lowes's most famous work, examining the sources of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan." Signed and dated (1929) by Lowes to fly leaf. Royal 8vo (239 x 160mm): xvii,639,[1]pp, with frontispiece, title-page vignette, and 15 further full-page plates inserted. Publisher's linen-backed boards, decorative paper labels printed in black to spine and upper cover, edges entirely uncut, title page in green and black. Spine mildly toned, covers lightly rubbed, but a superb example, tightly bound, pristine throughout, and entirely unopened. Litt, "Book of a Lifetime: The Road to Xanadu" (The Independent, 29 February 2008). Fine-. Item #BB2757

Using Coleridge's notebooks and other papers at the Bristol Library, Lowes assembled a list of books that the poet read as he composed his poems. Later critics have disputed Lowes's findings and method, but The Road to Xanadu, according to the British academic Toby Litt, is a book of a lifetime: "Its argument, that Coleridge had one of the most extraordinary minds the world has ever seen, is there on every page." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $424.00