Human Life

London: John Murray, 1819. First edition. Leather. Very Good. 9" by 7". None. First edition, from the library of the late Eric Quayle the noted book collector. This is the rare first issue with "Printed by Bensley and Son" on page 4 , and with the half title as it should be. A small section of Sims Read's 1984 catalogue is (removeably) tipped in to the front paste down which details another copy of this book in the same state for sale by the famous St. James bookseller at £75 - in 1984. The book has the attractive armorial bookplate of the Earl of Jersey (Middleton Park) as well as Eric's own bookplate. A very good copy of this scarce work. Samuel Rogers (1763 - 1855) was an English poet. Rogers was in effect a literary dictator in England. He made his reputation by The Pleasures of Memory when William Cowper's fame was still in the making. Alexander Dyce, from the time of his first introduction to Rogers, was in the habit of writing down the anecdotes with which his conversation abounded. From the mass of material thus accumulated he made a selection which he arranged under various headings and published in 1856 as Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers. His literary production remained slow. An Epistle to a Friend (Richard Sharp), published in 1798, describes Rogers's ideal of a happy life. This was followed twelve years later by The Voyage of Columbus (1810), and by Jacqueline (1814), a narrative poem, written in the four-accent measure of the newer writers, and published in the same volume with Byron's Lara. His reflective poem on Human Life (1819), on which he had been engaged for twelve years, is written in his earlier manner. In a half calf binding with marbled covered boards. There is some wear to the extremities. The binding is tight and firm and the covers are both firmly attached. Internally the book is bright but has some spotting principally to the first and last few pages as is usual for this work. Very Good