“NEVER FORGOTTEN… UNFADINGLY VIVID”: FIRST EDITION OF IVANHOE, IN ORIGINAL BOARDS—ASSOCIATION COPY BELONGING TO HENRY MACKENZIE, FRIEND OF SCOTT

SCOTT, Walter. Ivanhoe; A Romance. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, 1820 [i.e., 1819]. Three volumes. 12mo, original blue paper boards and drab spines, original printed paper spine labels, uncut. Each volume housed in custom three-quarter blue calf clamshell box, and all housed together in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, second issue—issued “within a few days” of the first—of Scott’s chivalric classic, in scarce original boards. A very nice association copy, belonging to Scott’s friend Henry Mackenzie, an Edinburgh lawyer and writer.

“Who could now imagine that he could form a satisfactory notion of the golden days… of Richard Coeur de Lion and his brave paladins that had not read Ivanhoe?” (Allibone, 1976). After the success of Scott’s Waverley, “the whole English-reading world waited for another book from the same pen. Ivanhoe appeared… [and] was ‘Scott’s culminating success in a book-selling sense, and marked the highest point both of his literary and social prosperity” (Grolier 100 71). The first of Scott’s historical romances set in England, Ivanhoe “contains episodes which, once read… are never forgotten and characters which remain unfadingly vivid” (Baugh et al., 1212)—including, notably, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck. Second issue, with reset Introduction. “By 29 November 1819 it was decided, in view of advance orders, that the original issue [of 6000] should be increased to 8000, a decision then necessitating a new press run of 2000 copies for the first seven sheets [signatures A-G]… the further work appears to have been accomplished within a few days of original publication, yet in time to admit of a number of corrections and one important revision in the Dedicatory Epistle (p. xv, line 3, from ‘toilsome’ to ‘trivial’)” (Todd & Bowden, 504-05). Volumes II and III were the same in both issues. Bound with all half titles and with advertisement leaf following the title page leaf of Volume I and and three pages of publisher’s advertisements at the end of Volume III. Todd & Bowden 140Ab. Lowndes, 2226. An English Library, 46. Ink signatures of two previous owners, most significantly that of Henry Mackenzie on the title page of each volume. Mackenzie was a Scottish lawyer, writer, and founder of the weekly Edinburgh periodical The Mirror, who was a contemporary and friend of Scott. “During his later years Mackenzie occupied a unique position in Edinburgh and Scottish society. He was a connecting link between successive generations… He had been the intimate friend of such Scottish literary celebrities of the 18th century as David Hume, John Home, and Robertson the historian, and he survived to enjoy the friendship of Sir Walter Scott and to witness the decline and fall of his fortunes” (DNB). Bookplate in each volume (Esher).

Occasional spotting to text; a few joints tender, light rubbing. A remarkably good set with a very nice association, seldom found in the original boards.