Item #64 With His Letters and Journals and His Life by Thomas Moore Esq. Works of Byron.
With His Letters and Journals and His Life by Thomas Moore Esq.
With His Letters and Journals and His Life by Thomas Moore Esq.

With His Letters and Journals and His Life by Thomas Moore Esq.

London: John Murray, 1832. Hardcover. 17 volumes, octavo Finely bound by Root & Son in ½ light blue Morocco, elaborate gilt tooling to spines in compartments separated by raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. Very good condition, Vol I has signs of light water stain to first few leaves including portrait, it is lightly stained not affecting text, spines are uniformly sunned yet still a handsome set. Engraved half-titles and title pages. A very attractively bound library set of Byron's works, complete with the three Don Juan volumes added to the edition, including all his poems and plays, letters and journals, and the Life by his friend Thomas Moore. As well as the sympathetic biography written by his friend and literary executor Thomas Moore. DNB admires "the skill with which Moore constructed his portrait" and proclaims his biography "indispensable for students of Byron." (The memoir Byron had entrusted to Moore for publication after his death was determined to be too scandalous to see print and was burned in the presence of Lady Byron and others.) Day notes "the vigor and movement in Byron's letters, a compelling rhythmic prose that sweeps and punches . The London bindery of W. Root & Son consistently turned-out excellent work, both on fine bindings as here, and on trade bindings and sets. Packer lists the firm in business in Red Lion Square in 1899-1901, and the December 1942 issue of The Rotarian notes with regret that W. Root had been uprooted from their premises on Paternaster Row during the 1941 Blitz. There is a record in the June 10 1905 issue of The Academy "Esteemed Editions of various Authors, some scarce, all in new extra leather bindings… W. Root & Son, 29-30 Eagle Street, Red Lion Street, Holborn, W.C." Root & Son are also recorded at the same address in The Literary Year-Book, 1909 (thirteenth annual volume). The British Library have five examples of bindings by Root & Son. Very Good. Item #64

Price (USD): $1,875.00

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