BYRON, Lord [George Gordon].

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Fourth.

London: John Murray, 1818. FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE TP + [iii]-xiii + [xv] = Contents + half-title + [3]-257, Octavo. Wise, Volume I, pp. 61-62, 64, 66-67 (all quotes below are from Wise). One of ten thousand first edition copies (this count includes all five issues of the first edition, Murray's records do not differentiate by issue). This copy is a rare variant of the First Edition, Second Issue which has the "early or proof copy [of the Dedication] preserved by chance". There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore,There is society where none intrudes, By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.(Canto CLXXVIII)The very rare xiii-page dedication (in virtually all copies this ends with p. xv) was included because the printers were under so much pressure to get out copies of the second issue that "every available scrap that could be employed was made use of." Wise notes that he had seen only two such copies and "heard of" two others: one in original boards and three rebound. Of the three rebound copies, two unseen copies were held by American collectors. A very rare variant of a fairly common book. Front free endpaper missing. Bound in green cloth with gilt lettering on the spine. Occasional pencil marks and some mild foxing especially to the title page. The unnoted errata in Canto 132 has been corrected in ink by a contemporary hand. A nice copy of a rare book. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

• USD 550.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 311

• bookseller: Athena Rare Books (USA)