THE PROPERTY OF JAMES BIERI
James Bieri, Ph.D. is the author of the monumental two-volume life of Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley (University of Delaware Press, 2004). Several of the most important works in the collection were exhibited at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, in 1985 in Collector's Choice: A Selection of Books, Maps, and Manuscripts from the Libraries of Austin Collectors. There it was noted that writing a "biography of Shelley has provided a major impetus for the collection of his works. These volumes of newly minted creativity help preserve a sense of the freshness, immediacy and liveliness that is so characteristic of his poetry... Shelley compared poetic creativity to the fading coal, almost extinguished before it is transformed on the printed page. Perhaps having these volumes reflects a wish to prolong the light of this ember and to experience its presence as long as possible." See also lots 412, 469 and 513 for other lots from the James Bieri collection.
SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Alastor; or, the Spirit of Solitude: and Other Poems. London: S. Hamilton for Baldwin, Cradock and Joy and Carpenter and Son, 1816.
Details
SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Alastor; or, the Spirit of Solitude: and Other Poems. London: S. Hamilton for Baldwin, Cradock and Joy and Carpenter and Son, 1816.
Small 8o. 19th-century calf gilt (joints slightly rubbed).
FIRST EDITION of Shelley's "first authentic and unmistakable poem... the tragedy of the idealist who seeks in reality the counterpart of his ideal" (Cambridge History of English Literature). "As first published, it is accompanied by ten minor poems (Stanzas, Sonnets, etc.) and the first part of The Daemon of The World... In an article on Young Poets in The Examiner for December 1, constituting perhaps the 'first public recognition of Shelley's poetical gifts,' Leigh Hunt characterized the author of Alastor (then a stranger to him) as 'a very striking and original thinker.' It is generally conceded that in Alastor Shelley showed himself a greater master of blank verse than any other poet of the time" (Granniss Shelley 32). Ashley V, pp.60-61; Tinker 1892; Wise Shelley pp.42-3.
Small 8
FIRST EDITION of Shelley's "first authentic and unmistakable poem... the tragedy of the idealist who seeks in reality the counterpart of his ideal" (Cambridge History of English Literature). "As first published, it is accompanied by ten minor poems (Stanzas, Sonnets, etc.) and the first part of The Daemon of The World... In an article on Young Poets in The Examiner for December 1, constituting perhaps the 'first public recognition of Shelley's poetical gifts,' Leigh Hunt characterized the author of Alastor (then a stranger to him) as 'a very striking and original thinker.' It is generally conceded that in Alastor Shelley showed himself a greater master of blank verse than any other poet of the time" (Granniss Shelley 32). Ashley V, pp.60-61; Tinker 1892; Wise Shelley pp.42-3.