[Rarebooks] fa: JOHN BOWDLER - SELECT PIECES IN VERSE AND PROSE 1816 - PRESENTATION COPY (to the Archbishop of Canterbury)

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 22. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/yabuzvzd

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


John Bowdler, Junior: Select Pieces in Verse and Prose. London: Printed by G. Davidson, 1816. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo, in full period polished calf, gilt-tooled spine and gilt-lettered morocco spine labels; xxiv, 72, 263, [1] pp.; [4], 265-617, [1] pp.; frontispiece portrait in vol. I. Bindings with some spotting, rubbing to the edges and hinges, front board of vol. I nearly detached; contents toned with occasional light spotting and browning.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s copy, with his bookplate in each volume (“W. Cantaur:” presumably William Howley, archbishop from 1828-48). PRESENTATION COPY, signed by the author’s father, John Bowdler, on the title-page: “From the Editor.” A posthumous collection of poetry and prose pieces, many on religious themes, as well as the author’s Journal and Letters from the south of Europe, and a “Memoir” by the author’s father. John Bowdler, Junior, had died the year before (1815). He was the younger brother of Thomas Bowdler, editor of The Family Shakespeare, the notoriously “sanitized” version of Shakespeare’s plays. “Among the instances in which an untimely grave has closed upon the brilliant prospects of genius and the useful course of virtue, we feel it a duty to record this of Mr Bowdler, chiefly because his amiable character and his uncommon talents were only known among his private friends and in the profession which he was sure to have adorned had his life been prolonged…” (Edinburgh Review, 1817).