Hallam, Arthur Henry.

12mo, first edition, first issue, presentation copy inscribed by the author to richard chevenix trench ("R.C. Trench | from his sincere friend | A.H. Hallam"), without advertisements, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, red morocco label on spine, preserved in collector's cloth folding box, upper joint starting at head, some slight wear to edges of binding

George Moore, with his bookplate; the poet John Drinkwater; Geoffrey Madan (located in his collection by T.H. Vail Motter, Papers of the American Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 35, 1941)

Wise, Ashley Library, II., p.167

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a fine presentation copy of a very rare book,  intended for publication with the poems of Tennyson (subsequently issued as Poems, chiefly lyrical) but withdrawn before publication, and distributed privately without a titlepage. The most momentous of Arthur's friendships was, of course, formed with Tennyson at Cambridge, a mutual love of poetry bringing them together. In the same year (1830) Arthur met and fell in love with Alfred's sister Emily, to whom he later became engaged, despite the protestations of his father Henry. Arthur's subsequent early sudden death at the age of 22 in 1833 inspired Tennyson's celebrated long poem In Memoriam.

In 1929 Wise asserted that only two copies of Poems were known. Since then a number of others have appeared, although it remains extremely rare. This is a fine association copy, inscribed by the author to Richard Chenevix French (1807-1886),  the future Archbishop of Dublin and founder of the Oxford English Dictionary, and at the time of the inscription an influential member of the Apostles (with Hallam and Tennyson), President of the Cambridge Union, and a poet in his own right.

This is the first issue with the fly-title; copies exist with and without the advertisements. The second issue is without the fly-title, consists of pp.168 only, and lacks the final two poems. Simon Nowell-Smith argued in The Book Collector (Winter 1959) that the second issue was made up from remainder sheets on Hallam's death in 1833.