Keats, John

8vo, FIRST EDITION, later issue (with "T. Miller, Printer, Noble street, Cheapside." on verso of half-title), half-title, with 5 line errata, full green morocco gilt with floral border and morocco onlays by Riviere & Son, spine gilt in compartments, gilt dentelles, top edge gilt, spine and upper section of upper board somewhat faded, occasional spotting and soiling, one spot of soiling to title page

John Whipple Frothingham, ownership inscription

Ashley Library III, p.13; Hayward 232; MacGillivray A2

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
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Endymion, dedicated to the memory of the poet Thomas Chatterton, was written when Keats was only 21 years old and determined to test his abilities as a poet. Keats composed the epic poem over six months, beginning in April 1817, a task possibly conceived in rivalry with Shelley, who was engaged in writing Laon and Cythna during the same period.

On publication, the work attracted scathing reviews from numerous critics, including Lockhart in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Croker in the Quarterly Review and in an anonymous review in the British Critic, which described the work as 'a monstrously dull poem'. It was not until the publication of Lamia, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems in 1820 that reviewers "began to redress the shameful injustices of Keats's earlier critical reception" (ODNB).