Rare Book Poems On Various Occasions William Shenstone

William Shenstone.

Poems Upon Various Occasions Written For The Entertainment Of The Author And Printed For The Amusements Of A Few Friends Prejudic'd In His Favour.

Printed By Leon Lichfield 1737.

This was William Shenstone's first book, which he wrote whilst still at Pembroke College in 1736. Extremely rare, there are three other copies that I know of, one in the British Library, one in Manchester and one in the US.
 Only 50 were ever printed and the author did his best to track down all copies and destroy them, having intended them only for his friends to read. The book contains the original first draft of The Schoolmistress, which was published later in 1742. Whilst a first edition of The Schoolmistress is a rare book, this one would be almost impossible to get hold of, other than within this volume. As such is very important to any collection or collector interested in the evolution of English 18th century poetry and it may also be an interesting and profitable venture to reprint the text, as it appears in this volume, together with up to date notes.
Externally the book is 10 x 16 cm. Hinges cracked but chords holding very well, corners bumped, with a tiny triangular piece of leather missing off the fore edge. Some scuff marks, overall the whole thing would look a lot better, and really rather good, if it were given a coat of polish. Internally extremely good, clean and bright, though unfortunately the title page has lost around 50%. I can however supply a piece of paper from the same year as the book was printed, so that could then have a new title page copied to it. There is also a tiny piece missing (1.5 cm by 5mm) to page 63/4.  End papers missing, but I can supply end papers of the same date with the purchase.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

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