“IS LOVE A FANCY, OR A FEELING? / NO, IT IS IMMORTAL AS IMMACULATE TRUTH”

COLERIDGE, Hartley. Poems… With a Memoir of His Life by His Brother. London: Edward Moxon, 1851. Two volumes. 12mo, contemporary full purple calf, elaborately gilt decorated spines, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $1600.

Second edition of this compilation of the accomplished poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's son, Hartley Coleridge, published in the same year as the first edition, with engraved frontispiece portrait, handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf. A rare and desirable association copy with the title page signatures of Coleridge's sister, Sara Coleridge, and niece, Edith Coleridge. Accompanied by a Edith Coleridge’s laid-in calling card and a presentation letter from a Samuel Coleridge scholar to a “Mr. Coleridge,” a descendant of Coleridge.

Hartley Coleridge was the eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and a respected poet in his own right. This collection was intended to be a definitive collection of his poetry, and was first published in 1851. This is the copy of Sara Coleridge, Hartley's sister. Her signature, partially cropped by the binder, is dated "Jan'y 12, 185[2]." Beneath that signature is the signature of Sara's daughter, Edith Coleridge, dated "Nov. 185[2]." Edith was herself a writer and edited her mother's memoirs. There is some marginalia written in what appears to be Sara's hand. Accompanying this set is a letter dated Oct. 30, 1934, to "Mr. Coleridge" from R.C. Bald, a Coleridge scholar who had organized a Samuel Taylor Coleridge Centenary Exhibition earlier that same year. He describes his discovery of this volume at a bookstore, and he presents it as a gift to this Coleridge descendant.

Scattered foxing to preliminary and final leaves, spines uniformly toned. A handsome, near-fine copy, with an intriguing association.