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Keats, John
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Description
Endymion. A Romance. London: Taylor and Hessey, 1818
8vo (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.; 216 x 140 mm). Half-title, 5-line errata leaf; occasional, light scattered foxing. Full green morocco panelled gilt by Bedford, spine elaborately gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt dentelles, edges gilt; upper joint rubbed, lower joint cracked, short tear to head of spine.
8vo (8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.; 216 x 140 mm). Half-title, 5-line errata leaf; occasional, light scattered foxing. Full green morocco panelled gilt by Bedford, spine elaborately gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt dentelles, edges gilt; upper joint rubbed, lower joint cracked, short tear to head of spine.
Provenance
Red morocco ticket monogrammed A. B. with motto from Seneca "Otium sine literis [sic] mors est" — John Dela Ware Lewis (Black morocco armorial ticket)
Literature
Ashley 3:13; Hayward 232; MacGillivray A.2; Tinker 1419
Catalogue Note
First edition, later issue, with cancellans half-title bearing imprint ``T. Miller, Printer'' on verso. Keats intended the 4,000-line poem to be a poetic marathon of sorts, pushing his imaginative powers to the utmost. The book is dedicated to the memory of Thomas Chatterton, the poet/forger who committed suicide at the age of eighteen. For Keats, Chatterton incarnated the tragic figure of unrecognized genuis.