SUPERB ILLUSTRATED FIRST EDITION OF FORSTER'S LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS

(DICKENS, Charles) FORSTER, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872-74. Three volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century full red crushed morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt; original cloth covers and spines bound in at rear of each volume. $2000.

First edition of Forster's Life of Dickens with 17 full-page engravings of the artist and his surroundings. Very handsomely bound in full morocco-gilt, with original cloth covers and spines bound in at the rear of each volume.

Noted journalist, critic and the first professional biographer of 19th-century England, John Forster was uniquely suited to pen Dickens' biography: he read, in manuscript or proof, almost everything Dickens ever wrote, and was the writer's close friend and literary executor. He was also godfather to Dickens' daughter Mamie, who co-edited The Letters. Dickens' death in 1870 prompted Forster to write what would become his last finished biography. Frontispiece engravings of Dickens in the stage of life each volume depicts, in addition to facsimiles of some of Dickens' papers.

Small chip to spine head of Volume III. An about-fine copy, handsomely bound.