[Rarebooks] fa: HENRY JAMES PYE - POEMS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS - 2 vols./First Edition 1787

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 8. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/ybs5vcue

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Henry James Pye: Poems on Various Subjects. London: Printed for John Stockdale, opposite Burlington-House, Piccadilly, MDCCLXXXVII [1787]. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo (21 cm), in early/period half calf and marbled boards, gilt-lettered spine labels; vi, 294 pp.; [4], 335, [1] pp.; with an engraved frontispiece in each volume. ESTC N12104.

First collected edition, with some pieces appearing for the first time. Pye (1745-1813) was an industrious and prolific poet, more admired for the “correctness” of his verses than for their content. Appointed Poet Laureate in 1790, mainly for political reasons, he was often the target of “Peter Pindar” (John Wolcot) and other satirists for the insipidity of his annual New Year and birthday odes. “Lord Byron’s ‘Better to err with Pope than shine with Pye’ is one of the kinder estimates of his work” (Kunitz & Haycraft). This set includes some of his earlier work, which was often about country pursuits (e.g., “Shooting, a Poem,” etc.).

Bindings with wear to the corners and spine ends, joints starting, with the joints of vol. I a bit tender, but all the boards are secure; offsetting from the frontispieces, one contents leaf a little loose, a few scattered light spots to the leaves, but generally very clean and fresh. A nice set.