FIRST EDITION OF DIARY, REMINISCENCES, AND CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY CRABB ROBINSON, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 191 PLATES

(ROBINSON, Henry Crabb). SADLER, Thomas, editor. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, Barrister-at-Law, F.S.A. London: Macmillan, 1869. Three volumes bound in six. Large octavo, early 20th-century full tan calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, red and green morocco spine labels, top edges gilt, uncut. $2400.

First edition, extra-illustrated with 191 plates, handsomely bound.

As a man of letters, a Times foreign editor and war correspondent, a barrister, a respected conversationalist, and a member of the literary elite whose friends included Lamb, Coleridge, Schiller, Wordsworth, Goethe and Southey, Henry Crabb Robinson grew to become the quintessential 19th-century scholarly gentleman. At his death, he left behind over a hundred volumes of diaries, journals, letters, and other personal writings, which gave “a truthful and unrivalled picture of social and literary life and literary men, both in [Great Britain] and on the continent during the first half of his century” (DNB). Although Robinson had initially intended to sift through his writings himself, the task was left to Sadler, who carefully produced these brief but intelligently edited volumes. With a separate title page in each of the six volumes. The pagination of this six-volume work is for three volumes as this, the first edition, was originally published in three volumes. Armorial bookplates.

Fine condition.