Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
KEATS, John. Endymion. Printed for Taylor and Hessey, London, 1818.
Price: US$6724.53 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first issue. The present copy has the first issue imprint to the verso of the half-title "Printed by T. Miller, Noble Street, Cheapside" and the one-line erratum leaf, as well as the tipped-in 5-line errata slip. 8vo. ix, [3], 207pp. Handsomely rebound in full, dark-blue leather w/blind stamped borders on front and rear covers. Spine has five raised bands, black leather labels, and gilt detailing. New endpapers. Lacking the five pages of advertisements at the rear. There is a faint trace of an ownership inscription on the half-title. Half-title and last page are tanned, otherwise in remarkable condition throughout. Near-fine. Endymion was the second of only three lifetime publications by Keats, comprising his longest single sustained poem, famous for its opening line: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever".
Seller: Henry Pordes Books Ltd, London, United Kingdom
KEATS, JOHN.. Endymion: A Poetic Romance. London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1818, 1818.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition; first issue (or more properly, printing?); the erratum leaf is in the first state, but it has been bound without ads in a full red crushed morocco binding by Zaehnsdorf, but which is damaged. The contents are gilt-edged; ownership inscriptions on the first blank; overall in excellent shape, in a custom clamshell box. Featuring one of the most famous lines in poetry, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever.' All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.
Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.
Keats, John. Endymion. A Poetic Romance. for Taylor and Hessey, London, 1818.
Price: US$8500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first issue. ix, [3], 207 pp. Half-title with imprint on verso reading "Printed by T. Miller, Noble street, Cheapside," dedication leaf, single erratum on page [xi]. Lacking ads at end. 8vo. First edition, first issue, of the second of only three lifetime publications by Keats, comprising his longest single sustained poem, famous for its opening line: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". This copy has the first issue imprint to the verso of the half-title "Printed by T. Miller, Noble Street, Cheapside" and the one-line erratum leaf. MacGillivray A2; Ashley III:13; Tinker 1419; Hayward 232 ; Tinker 1419. S Contemporary calf, rebacked, spine gilt in six compartments, original lettering-piece laid down. Occasional light spotting, a clean copy ix, [3], 207 pp. Half-title with imprint on verso reading "Printed by T. Miller, Noble street, Cheapside," dedication leaf, single erratum on page [xi]. Lacking ads at end. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
John Keats. Endymion: a romance. Taylor & Hessey, 93 Fleet Street London, 1818.
Price: US$8752.81 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: A very fine copy of this very rare first edition, very finely rebound in a very dark maroon full leather, spine with five raised bands edged with gilt lines & titles , gilt ruling and wavy line with corner devices on front and back boards, maroon marbled endpapers and pastedowns , new eps, half title, five line errata slip inserted before publication as called for in the true first edition. 207pp. An exceptionally rare and handsome book.
Seller: VANESSA PARKER RARE BOOKS, Westport, MAYO, Ireland
KEATS, John.. Endymion: A Poetic Romance.. Printed for Taylor and Hessey., London., 1818.
Price: US$12168.21 + shipping
Description: 8vo. (224 x 150 mm). pp. ix, (i), 207. Half-title with printer's credit verso, title, leaf with dedication to Thomas Chatterton, two leaves with Keats' 'Preface', leaf with five-line errata and 'Book I' to 'Book IV' of Keats' verse with section title to each 'Book'; several leaves retain uncut deckle edges at foot and outer edges. Full green crushed morocco by Rivière & Son with their signature gilt, boards with triple gilt ruled borders, banded spine with gilt decoration, floral tools and gilt title in 6 compartments, turn-ins with elaborate decorative borders, board edges ruled in gilt, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, later matching green morocco-edged cloth board slipcase. The first edition of Keats' 'Endymion'. 'Endymion' was John Keats' second book, dedicated to Thomas Chatterton, who like Keats and Shelley and Byron, epitomised the Romantic ideal with their precocious talents and tragic early deaths. 'Endymion' was received badly by contemporary reviewers and it has been argued that it contributed to Keats' death from tuberculosis. Indeed, the reviews for 'Endymion' caused Byron to write: 'Tis strange the mind, that very fiery particle / Should let itself be snuffed out by an article'. (Don Juan, Canto 2, Stanze 60). Shelley defended Keats also, attributing Keats' early death directly to the reception of 'Endymion', in his introduction to 'Adonais', published in the year of Keats' death, 1821. This tall copy with many sheets retaining deckle edges at foot is from the second issue with the printer's credit reading 'T. Miller, Printer, Noble street, Cheapside' and with the five-line errata. 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increase . '. (The opening lines of Endymion). [MacGillivray A2].
Seller: Sims Reed Ltd ABA ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Keats. Endymion: A Poetic Romance. Keats, 1818.
Price: US$12500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Keats / 1818 / Endymion: A Poetic Romance (Safe 8, 85854) Octavo. Original drab boards with paper spine label (slightly chipped) in manuscript ("Keat's Endym[ion]"). (Joints expertly repaired. Minimal spotting to boards, minor shelfwear.) Early bookseller's label ("W. Heath") on front pastedown. On wove paper, edges deckled. Minor foxing, mainly affecting first and last few leaves. Manuscript inscription ("[Osborn?] University College London", 1836 or later) on front free endpaper. Housed in custom cloth clamshell case. [xii], [3], 207, [4, Taylor Hessey ad dated May 1818]. "A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever" First edition, second issue. Original boards. London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1818. Keats' Endymion was met with scathing reviews from the Quarterly Review and Blackwood's when it was first published in 1818; John Gibson Lockhart described it in the latter as "calm, settled, imperturbable drivelling idiocy." The attacks were even believed to play a part in Keats' 1821 death from tuberculosis, with Lord Byron remarking in Don Juan, "John Keats, who was kill d off by one critique, Poor fellow! His was an untoward fate / Tis strange the mind, that very fiery particle, / Should let itself be snuff d out by an article. In an 1818 letter to his brother George, Keats had written, "There have been two Letters in my defence in the Chronicle and one in the Examiner. I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death." Particular veneration of his works came three decades later by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who placed Keats in the same upper echelon as "Homer, Dante, Chaucer, Leonardo, Shelley, [and] Browning" (MacGillivray), above Milton and Lord Byron. Issue points Errata on [xi] with five corrections. Imprint on verso of half-title: "T. Miller, Printer, Noble street, Cheapside."
Seller: Barry Lawrence Ruderman, La Jolla, CA, U.S.A.
KEATS, John.. Endymion. A Poetic Romance.. London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, 1818, 1818.
Price: US$22415.12 + shipping
Description: First edition, first issue, finely bound by Riviere. Endymion was the second of only three lifetime publications by Keats. This copy is from the library of the noted American bibliophile Natalie Knowlton Blair (1887-1951), "the earliest woman collector of Americana of the first rank" (Moonan), with her Blairhame leather book label on the front pastedown. Blair had converted the attic of her Manhattan mansion into a series of museum rooms where she displayed a wealth of American and European antiques. The New York summers were not kind to her books, and much of her collection was damaged by the heat; the chemise and slipcase of this Endymion have borne the brunt of the attic's climate, leaving the binding in beautiful condition. This copy has the first issue imprint on the verso of the half-title, "Printed by T. Miller, Noble Street, Cheapside", and the one-line erratum leaf, as well as the five-line errata slip. It also contains an original pencil portrait bound in before the advertisements, presumably intended to be a portrait of Keats. Hayward 232; MacGillivray A2. Wendy Moonan, "A Trove of Americana from a Well-Stocked Attic Goes on the Block", New York Times, 6 Jan 2006. Octavo (220 x 146 mm). Late 19th century red morocco by Riviere & Son, raised bands on spine, ruled, tooled, and lettered in gilt, covers richly gilt, turn-ins ruled in gilt, green silk endpapers, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Housed in a custom red cloth chemise and morocco slipcase. With the half-title, five-line errata slip and one-line errata page, and 4 pp. publisher's advertisements dated May 1818 at rear. Several leaves browned (half-title, title page, p. ix, p. xi, F3, F6, L2, L7-8, M1-3, M6-8, N1, N4-5, N8), chemise and slipcase dry and worn. A very good, handsomely bound copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom