“PURE DIALECT IS DISAPPEARING…”: FIRST EDITION OF THE ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY, 1898-1905, HANDSOMELY BOUND; THE ST. JOHN HORNBY-MINET COPY

WRIGHT, Joseph, editor. The English Dialect Dictionary. London, Oxford and New York: Henry Frowde, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898-1905. Six volumes. Quarto, mid-20th century three-quarter brown morocco gilt, raised bands, all edges gilt.

First edition of Wright’s “great achievement” (DNB), a fascinating record of vanishing British dialects, handsomely bound; the copy formerly belonging to Ashendene Press founder Charles Henry St. John Hornby and noted bookman Paul Minet, with their bookplates.

“A dialect dictionary had been projected by the English Dialect Society soon after its foundation in 1873; but after some time Professor Walter William Skeat, who was ‘the father and originator’ of the scheme, became convinced that the work could be successfully carried out only by ‘an accomplished phonetician’, and declared Wright ‘the only man capable of undertaking the task’. Accordingly, in 1891 Wright took over the material which had been collected—about a million slips, weighing a ton; and when the Dialect Society came to an end in 1896, Wright became responsible not only for the actual work on the Dictionary but also for the business side of the undertaking… His entire savings, amounting to £2000, went into the undertaking… He found 1000 contributors in various parts of the country, who furnished information which could only be obtained on the spot; and to these some 6000 queries were issued annually from the ‘workshop’ at Oxford. When publication had to be seriously considered, it was found that no publisher was prepared to face the risk; and Wright decided to publish it himself. The first volume appeared in July 1896, and by February 1905, the work, which it was estimated had cost £25,000, was finished… The six volumes of the Dictionary contain 5000 pages and include about 100,000 words, explained by some 500,000 quotations. The work was undertaken none too soon; as early as 1895 Wright wrote: ‘Pure dialect is disappearing, even in the country districts, owing to the spread of education and to the modern facilities of intercommunication,’ and some 30 years later, in 1926, he complained: ‘It is very difficult to find people who can speak a dialect without being seriously mixed up with the so-called standard language” (DNB). Originally issued in parts; paper wrappers of selected parts bound in at rear of the first three volumes. Decorative bookplates of Charles Henry St. John Hornby, founder of the Ashendene Press, “one of the earliest [private presses] to be influenced by William Morris and the Kelmscott Press” (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee); and (in Volume I only) of bibliophile and founder of Rare Book Review, Paul Minet.

A fine set, handsomely bound.