Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Among My Books. Six Essays. [SIGNED, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR + ORIGINAL LETTER TO JOHN DUKE COLERIDGE]

Lowell, James Russell

London: Macmillan & Co., 1870. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. [8], 359pp. Full purple calf with gold-tooling on spine and edges and gold borders on covers. Bound by Morrell. Gilt lettering on spine. Raised bands. Top edge gilt. Dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Expertly rebacked retaining original spine. Ex-libris of Lucy Smith Battson (ex Lucy Doheny) on free front endpaper and half-title page. Additional steel-engraved ex-libris of Edwin Holden, dated 1894, on verso of front free endpaper. Original 2-page letter by James Russel Lowell addressed to Lord Coleridge, and dated September 14th 1888, pasted on fly leaf. John Duke Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge PC (1820 -1894) was a British lawyer, Chief Justice and liberal politician who was the great-nephew of Samuel T. Coleridge. He held the posts, in turn, of Solicitor General for England and Wales, Attorney General for England and Wales, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Lord Chief Justice of England. Half-title page inscribed and signed by the author. The political interests which had engaged much of Russell's prose writing before and during the Civil war had not interrupted his increasing devotion to the study and criticism of literature. He had been directing his attention less to contemporary letters and more to the masters of English and to a few of the masters of foreign literature, notably Dante. The result of these studies was a succession of essays which were first published in Among My Books (1870). Minor rubbing along joints and corners. Gold-tooling along edges partly faded. Fore-edge of fly leaf slightly chipped (not affecting letter). Few annotations in pencil, dated 1881. Very minor age-toning along paper margin. Binding and interior in overall very good condition. vg. Item #25729

Price: $1,500.00