Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence

WALPOLE, Horace. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence. Edited by W.S. Lewis. Original cloth. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1937-1983. 1st eds. Complete set in 48 volumes. The complete 48-volume set of this unparalleled exercise in scholarly editing, fully annotated and indexed. Wilmarth ("Lefty") Lewis, Yale 1918, devoted his life to collecting Horace Walpole and editing his correspondence. His former residence and its contents was left to Yale as a study center devoted to 18th century British studies. Horace Walpole (1718-1797) was the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, England's first prime minister. Volumes 19,20, 23,25-27,30,31,33-35,37-48 are in dust jackets. Thirteen have the bookplate of George Brinton Cooper and almost all of those have his annotation "ex dono W.S. Lewis"; Vol. 39 has card laid in "With the compliments of the Editor W.S. Lewis." Most of the rest have library bookplates with shelfmarks removed from spine; otherwise they are clean and show very little use. Complete sets are difficult to obtain, in part because a large number of volumes are out-of-print. Very good.