Lyrical Ballads - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Bauman Rare Books

Lyrical Ballads

Samuel Taylor COLERIDGE | William WORDSWORTH

Item#: 100721 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Lyrical Ballads

Lyrical Ballads

“EMOTION RECOLLECTED IN TRANQUILITY”: THE IMPORTANT LYRICAL BALLADS, ONE OF ONLY 500 COPIES, WITH WORDSWORTH’S FAMOUS PREFACE—MANIFESTO OF THE ROMANTICS

WORDSWORTH, William and COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems. London: T.N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800. Two volumes. Small octavo, early 20th-century full dark green crushed morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. Housed together in a custom slipcase.

First complete edition of this touchstone of English Romanticism, containing the first appearance of Wordsworth’s landmark Preface, defining his revolutionary theory of poetry—“his revolt against 18th-century artificiality” (PMM). Handsomely bound in full morocco-gilt by Wood.

In the 1798 one-volume first edition of Lyrical Ballads the poets rejected the classical principles of beauty and formal style, choosing instead to elevate the lives of ordinary men and women, and to write in the language of ordinary people. Amazingly, that edition was such a financial disaster that Longman, upon purchasing the printer’s rights from Joseph Cottle, valued it at “nothing” and sent it back to Wordsworth for revision. This is the complete, two-volume second edition (the preferred edition), containing for the first time Wordsworth’s famous Preface, in which he argues that poetry “takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” It should provide access to the emotions contained in memory, and promote “the worth and dignity of individual man.” Moreover, its first principle should be pleasure— through a rhythmic and beautiful expression of feeling— as all human sympathy is based on a subtle pleasure that is “the naked and native dignity of man.” Wordsworth’s Preface became the revolutionary manifesto of the Romantic poets and is now considered to mark the beginning of the Romantic Movement in English literature. First state of Volume II, with ten lines on page 210, omitting 15 lines of “Michael.” Volume I bound without errata nor leaf of advertisement. PMM 256. Broughton 7. Rothschild 2603. Wise, 6-8. Small dealer description tipped to front free endpaper.

A fine copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
Book-Plate Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.
Broadside Sheet printed on one side, typically for public display, usually larger than folio size (a folio being a broadside-size sheet printed on both sides and folded once, to make four pages).
Calf Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
Chromolithograph Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
Collation Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
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Doublure Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
Edition Print-run from a single setting of type without substantial change. Depending on demand, any number of printings can be made from a setting of type For example, a first printing might consist of 1000 copies, followed by a second printing of 2500 copies; in which case the book would have a first edition, first printing of 1000 copies, and a first edition, second printing of 2500 copies.
Endpapers Extra leaves—plain, colored or decorated—with which a bookbinder covers the insides of the book’s boards, therefore not part of the actual text block. The part of the leaf pasted to the inside of the front board is the front “pastedown,” while the other part of the leaf that forms the first page of the book is the “front free endpaper”; the same applies to the rear pastedown and rear free endpaper.
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Errata List of mistakes and corrections noted after printing, often compiled on a separate sheet or slip and inserted into the text block.
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Half Title Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.
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Japanese Vellum Expensive handmade paper often used in deluxe editions.
Lithograph Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
Marginalia Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.
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Morocco Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).
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Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
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