Godwin, William

Essay on Sepulchres: or, a Proposal for Erecting some Memorial of theIllustrious Dead of All Ages, on the Spot where Their Remains have beenInterred

London: Printed for W. Miller, 1809 PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed on the title page in Godwin's unmistakable hand: "From the Author"'; with the bookplates of Henry Reeve, and (later) of Frank M. Elliot. Godwin's curious book, partly inspired by his reading Sir Thomas Browne's URN-BURIAL and Blair's THE GRAVE, proposes a new system of permanently marking the graves of the eminent and deserving dead. He suggests a subscription be taken up to maintain and replace when necessary, "a very slight and cheap memorial, a white cross of wood, with a wooden slab at the foot of it." The idea did not arouse tremendous enthusiasm. As Charles Lamb remarked, "I don't want the Public to prescribe me my admiration." And as William St. Clair notes, "Like virtually every book that Godwin wrote, it is an extended footnote to POLITICAL JUSTICE." - St. Clair, THE GODWINS AND THE SHELLEYS, p. 307 First edition. 8vo. Engraved frontispiece "Life in the Desert and the Solitude" by Hopwood after Hilton. xii, 116pp. Full olive-green pebbled morocco gilt, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. Bookplates of Henry Reeve and Frank M. Elliot. Neatly rebacked, internally fine copy. Tinker 1083

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