The golden treasury of the best songs and lyrical poems in the English language. Selected and arranged with notes
Cambridge & London: Macmillan, 1861. First Edition. Original Cloth. Scarce First Impression of this spectacularly successful anthology, collecting the best-loved English poems from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries (from Shakespeare to Shelley, with a heavy dose of the Romantics), establishing a canon of the "best" poems in English literature. Only 2,000 copies of the first impression were printed. Foolscap 8vo (158 x 102mm): [12],332pp, with tissue-guarded title-page vignette engraved by C. H. Jeens after the sculptor Thomas Woolner, who shared a house with Palgrave in the early 1860s (apparently a self-portrait of Woolner in the guise of Pan fluting beneath a sapling). Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, gilt seal within double-ruled gilt frame to front cover, rear cover framed in blind, coated chocolate-brown end papers, edges untrimmed. Contemporary binder's ticket to rear paste-down. Short tear neatly closed on p. 227, else a bright, fresh, fine copy, tightly bound and clean throughout. Foxon, "Bibliographical Notes and Queries", The Book Collector, Autumn 1955, pp. 252-53 and Spring 1956, p. 75. Spevack, "The Golden Treasury: 150 Years On," British Library Journal, 2012. Carter (Binding Variants), p. 113. Fine. Item #BB2830
J. W. Mackail, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, called The Golden Treasury "one of those rare instances in which a critical work has substantive imaginative value, entitl[ing] its author to rank among creative artists." Arriving in England, in 1912, Robert Frost announced: I have "come to the land of The Golden Treasury. That is what I came for." Palgrave, advised by his friend Alfred Lord Tennyson (to whom The Golden Treasury is dedicated), omitted verse from this anthology by then-living writers, and his choices clearly reflect the preferences of his times. According to Foxon, the scarce first impression is distinguished by four hallmarks: half-title in Roman capitals (later changed to Gothic type), '4/6' price to foot of spine (later removed), second paragraph of Preface in three lines, four notes on p. 323) 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: $724.00