Polidori, John

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Polidori, John
The Vampyre; A Tale related by Lord Byron to Dr. Polidori. Colburn and Co., Publishers, Great Marlborough Street [1819]
ink on paper

8vo, first edition (see note), half-title, title mounted on a stub, contemporary grey wrappers, spine worn, wrappers slightly soiled

Literature

Henry R. Viets, "The London editions of Polidori’s The Vampyre”, PBSA, 63 (1969), 83-103

Catalogue Note

The earliest extant issue of the first vampire story in English. The publication history of the work is tortuous, with Colburn first attempting to attribute the work solely to Byron for commercial reasons, but then relenting and cancelling that title in favour of one claiming that the poet had related the story to Polidori (who was in fact in fact the true author, and was annoyed at Colburn’s sharp practice).

Henry R. Viets notes that “no copy of the printing… in its first state has survived”; copies of the Colburn with the cancel title are extremely rare – no copies are recorded on ABPC, and Americana Exchange records only one example from a dealer’s catalogue in 1935. Viets himself locates just two examples.

Publication then swiftly passed to Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, these editions being the ones normally found at auction.