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[Thomas Gray]. An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. London: For R. Dodsley, 1747....
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Description
Gray's first publication in English, one of the rarest of the major 18th century English poems
[Thomas Gray]. An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton
College. London: For R. Dodsley, 1747.Folio. 8 pages. Early 20th-century paneled red morocco gilt; quarter morocco folding case.
FIRST EDITION. Gray's exceedingly rare first publication in English (a Latin poem in honor of the Prince of Wales's marriage had appeared in 1736). It had been written in 1742, and appeared in print through the agency of Horace Walpole. It was reprinted anonymously in Vol. II of Dodsley's Collection of Poems, 1748, and again in 1753 as the third of the poems included in Designs by Mr. R. Bentley for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray.
Hayward notes that Gray recorded a note on the manuscript of the poem, which is at Pembroke College, Cambridge (then called "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Windsor & the adjacent country"), and that the poem was written at Stoke, August 1742.
EXTREMELY RARE: Only two copies have appeared at auction since 1975, including the present copy when it appeared in the H. Bradley Martin sale in 1990. There are only approximately ten known copies, and institutional holdings include the British Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, the National Library of Scotland, Yale University, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, Duke University, and the Pierpont Morgan Library.
Condition: Horizontal fold-mark running across the leaves; lower margin trimmed unevenly, with loss of catchword on p. 3, and partial loss on p. 7, but with outer margins retaining deckle edges; some very light pale spotting or soiling.
References: Foxon G254; Hayward 172; Northrup 1326; Rothschild 1055.
Provenance: Francis Grant, noted collector of Pope and 18th-century literature (bookplate, dated 1880); Howard Samuel; H. Bradley Martin (his sale, Sotheby's New York, 30 April 1990, lot 2883); James O. Edwards (bookplate); purchased from Piney Glen Antiquarian Books, 2003. From the William A. Strutz Library.
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Auction Info
2024 June 27 Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part I, Rare Books Signature® Auction #6295 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
June, 2024
27th
Thursday
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