Thomas Gray. Poems by Mr. Gray. J Murray, London, 1778.

Price: US$77.30 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: POEMS BY MR. GRAY A New Edition J. Murray, London 1778 First Thus 158pp Fine Binding. This copy is bound in full calfwith gilt decoration and titling to the spine which has raised bands to six compartment with a red leather panel to the second compartment. There is a small area of loss to the front and rear board. The contents are bright and tight although there ius some typical offsetting to the pages opposite the three plates and the vignette on the title page. There is some evidence of the removal of a book plate from the front paste down and there is a neat signature of ownership in the centre of the front paste down. Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University. Gray began seriously writing poems in 1742, mainly after his close friend Richard West died. He moved to Cambridge and began a self-imposed programme of literary study, becoming one of the most learned men of his time, though he claimed to be lazy by inclination. He became a Fellow first of Peterhouse, and later of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Gray spent most of his life as a scholar in Cambridge, and only later in his life did he begin travelling again. Although he was one of the least productive poets (his collected works published during his lifetime amount to fewer than 1,000 lines), he is regarded as the foremost English-language poet of the mid-18th century. In 1757, he was offered the post of Poet Laureate, which he refused. It is believed that Gray began writing his masterpiece, the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in the graveyard of the church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in 1742, completing it, after several years lying unfinished, in 1750. The poem was a literary sensation when published by Robert Dodsley in February 1751 and has made a lasting contribution to English literature. Its reflective, calm and stoic tone was greatly admired, and it was pirated, imitated, quoted and translated into Latin and Greek. It is still one of the most popular and most frequently quoted poems in the English language. In 1759 during the Seven Years War, before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, British General James Wolfe is said to have recited it to his officers, adding: "Gentlemen, I would rather have written that poem than take Quebec tomorrow". The poem's famous depiction of an "ivy-mantled tow'r" could be a reference to St. Laurence's Church in Upton, Slough. Ref X2 Size: 158pp

Seller: Amazing Book Company, Liphook, United Kingdom

Gray, Thomas. Poems by Mr. Gray. A New Edition. J. Murray, London, 1778.

Price: US$165.00 + shipping

Description: Sml 8vo, 158pp, b&w frontis, b&w illus. One half green calf with marbled boards; gilt title (Gray's Poems) at spine. Spine is toned; small scratch at calf at top front cover. Internally, bookplate inside front cover; inscription dated 1787 at ffep wiritten by an Amanda Lock who also contributes Four pages of beautiful copper plate handwriting at the back of the volume record the text of a few of Gray's odes, including Ode on the Pleasures of Vicissitude, which is noted here as "Ode - Unfinished"; the text of the ode stops four lines short of Gray's own. New edition, with three manuscript poems added at the end. First published in 1768. Gray (1716-71) English poet, "He excelled his contemporaries in meticulous workmanship and in ability to use new materials--medieval Welsh or Scandinavian--with dramatic imaginative power." Baugh. "His enthusiasm had been roused by the fragments of Gaelic poetry published by Macpherson in 1760. He did his best to believe in their authenticity and found himself in rather uncongenial alliance with Hume, whose skepticism was for once quenched by his patriotism. Gray's interest probably led him to his imitations from the Norse and Welsh. Only in later life did Gray actually express the love he felt for another man. (Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage).

Seller: Antipodean Books, Maps & Prints, ABAA, Garrison, NY, U.S.A.