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BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861). The Seraphim, and Other Poems. London: Samuel Bentley for Saunders and Otley, 1838.
12o (190 x 108 mm). With initial blank A1 and half-title. Original publisher's blind-stamped plum cloth, gilt-lettered on spine (rebacked with original spine laid-down, some browning and fading); quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), British author (presentation inscription from the author on the title-page: "To Miss Martineau from Elizabeth B. Barrett -- 1843") -- purchased from Inman's Book Shop, New York, 24 September 1969.
PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. Harriet Martineau was a prolific writer of popular works and was very active with the intellectuals of her day. "She dined out every day except Sunday, and made acquaintance with all the literary celebrities" (DNB). In her first years at the Lakes, Martineau was friendly with Wordsworth who encouraged her purchase of property there ("the value of the property would be doubled in ten years," he said) and advised her to entertain her friends to tea, but to charge if they wanted more. Of herself and her work, Martineau wrote that she had "small imaginative and suggestive powers, and therefore no approach to genius," and that "she could popularise, though she could neither discover nor invent." Kelley and Coley record a copy of Poems, 1844 also inscribed to Martineau (C76) as well as several volumes of Martineau's own works inscribed by Browning to other recipients. A FINE ASSOCIATION.
Elizabeth B. Barrett married Robert Browning in the autumn of 1846, three years after the inscription here and eight years after the publication of The Seraphim. Of the twenty-two presentation copies of The Seraphim recorded in Kelley and Coley, only one is signed similarly, "Elizabeth B. Barrett." The remaining are signed "Ba," "from the author" or "EBB." See Kelley and Coley C154-175. Barnes/Texas EB4; Sterling 83; Tinker 398; Wise Browning, pp.76-77.
12o (190 x 108 mm). With initial blank A1 and half-title. Original publisher's blind-stamped plum cloth, gilt-lettered on spine (rebacked with original spine laid-down, some browning and fading); quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), British author (presentation inscription from the author on the title-page: "To Miss Martineau from Elizabeth B. Barrett -- 1843") -- purchased from Inman's Book Shop, New York, 24 September 1969.
PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. Harriet Martineau was a prolific writer of popular works and was very active with the intellectuals of her day. "She dined out every day except Sunday, and made acquaintance with all the literary celebrities" (DNB). In her first years at the Lakes, Martineau was friendly with Wordsworth who encouraged her purchase of property there ("the value of the property would be doubled in ten years," he said) and advised her to entertain her friends to tea, but to charge if they wanted more. Of herself and her work, Martineau wrote that she had "small imaginative and suggestive powers, and therefore no approach to genius," and that "she could popularise, though she could neither discover nor invent." Kelley and Coley record a copy of Poems, 1844 also inscribed to Martineau (C76) as well as several volumes of Martineau's own works inscribed by Browning to other recipients. A FINE ASSOCIATION.
Elizabeth B. Barrett married Robert Browning in the autumn of 1846, three years after the inscription here and eight years after the publication of The Seraphim. Of the twenty-two presentation copies of The Seraphim recorded in Kelley and Coley, only one is signed similarly, "Elizabeth B. Barrett." The remaining are signed "Ba," "from the author" or "EBB." See Kelley and Coley C154-175. Barnes/Texas EB4; Sterling 83; Tinker 398; Wise Browning, pp.76-77.