“COVERDALE WAS, AS YOUNG LADIES TERM IT, INTERESTING-LOOKING”

SMEDLEY, Frank E. Harry Coverdale’s Courtship, and All that Came of It. With Illustrations by “Phiz.” London: Virtue Brothers, circa 1866. Octavo, early 20th-century three-quarter red morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, marbled boards and endpapers, top edge gilt, original green cloth bound in. $300.

Later edition, with numerous full-page steel engravings by “Phiz” (Hablot Browne), handsomely bound by Bayntun.

Smedley’s Coverdale began publication in parts in 1855, but when the sponsoring magazine’s ownership changed hands, the new proprietor ended the relationship and abruptly finished the story himself. This, then, is the author’s own version of the ending, written under pressure of “severe nervous headaches.” The first edition in book form followed the same year. It is one of only three prose works by Smedley—all “high-spirited novels of sport, romance, and adventure” (Drabble, 912). Bookplate.

A fine copy, handsomely bound.