A Classical Dictionary

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1841. Hardcover. Good. First edition. Thick octavo. viii, 1423, [1]pp., with publisher's advertisement on the final page. Includes an "Essay on the Measures, Weights, and Moneys of the Greeks and Romans" at the back. America's classic mid-19th century dictionary of classical Greek and Roman culture, owned by a proud young Malcolm Cowley, with his ownership name boldly written in ink on the front fly leaf and repeated on the top margin of the title page: "Malcolm Cowley, Hic liber est meus. A.D. 1912". Laid in is a partial notebook sheet with holograph notes by Cowley. Original full leather binding reinforced with three pieces of leather, likely hand-cut from an old shoe, mounted horizontally over the top of the spine and vertically over the bottom third of both joints. The boards are rubbed and worn at the edges, endpapers are foxed, two small pieces of tape on verso of the inscribed fly leaf, title page is slightly protruded with minor chipping at the fore-edge, scattered light foxing, good or better overall. Born in Pennsylvania in 1898, Cowley is today recognized as one of the major literary historians and critics of the twentieth century, best known for his 1934 autobiographical memoir *Exile's Return: A Narrative of Ideas*, and as an influential editor and talent scout at Viking Press. As indicated in the inscription, Cowley owned this dictionary when he was a schoolboy at Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, where he graduated 1915. A compelling copy with a notable provenance, and a fascinating vernacular engineered binding repair.