Adelaide Anne Procter
Legends and Lyrics. A Book of Verses, 1875
London: George Bell and Sons
With fore-edge paintings to both volumes.
3327
Two octavo vols. xxxi, 264; vi, 223pp. Procter's poems, some of which are organized into Spenser-esque narratives, receive an introduction by Charles Dickens. Dickens had long sponsored Procter's literary aspirations,...
Two octavo vols. xxxi, 264; vi, 223pp. Procter's poems, some of which are organized into Spenser-esque narratives, receive an introduction by Charles Dickens. Dickens had long sponsored Procter's literary aspirations, publishing her in his own periodicals. Now elided from the canon, Procter was in her own day much celebrated and well-connected with the literary scene, associating with Gaskell, Hazlitt, and glancingly with Wordsworth. As so often writ for the period, she died of tuberculosis in 1864, making this a celebratory, posthumous re-editioning of her first book of poetry. These volumes finely bound in full brown morocco with gilt rolls and rules to covers, edges, and turn-ins. Spines in six compartments with floral stamping and titling also gilt. Especially attractive are fore-edge paintings to both volumes: to the first, Euston Hall in Suffolk, and to the second, Mistley Hall in Essex. Stray rubs to corners, spines faintly sunned, else near fine. A.e.g. Bookplate of former owner to front pastedowns, previous owner's inscription to front flyleaf of first volume.


