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Gray , (Thomas):. The Poems of Gray.. London: Printed by T Bensley for F J du Roveray, 1800.

Price: US$45.51 + shipping

Condition: Poor

Description: New edition. HB. Full leather with title on red leather panel to spine, gilt decorative lines and borders. Marbled endpapers and page edges. xxviii, 162pp. With 6 tissue-guarded engravings in plates, 3 of them after Fuseli. Begins with an account of Gray's life (anon). Good overall: the contents are very good, but the covers are poor. Leather is very worn.scuffed, with frayed spine ends with loss to lower spine; the page binding is sound, however. Some light browning/foxing and a few handling marks. Some tissue guards very browned, but plates very good. Pencil marking of a few margins. Previous owner's small bookplate inside front cover, and owner's name stamp 5 times to prelims. A Good copy.

Seller: David Ford Books PBFA, Cley-next-the-Sea, United Kingdom

Gray, Thomas. The Poems of Gray A New edition Adorned with Plates. Printed by T. Bensley for F.J. Du Roveray, sold by J. Wright and T. Hunt, London, 1800.

Price: US$65.01 + shipping

Condition: Good

Description: First edition thus. Hardback, half leather binding with marbled boards. xxx + 162 pp. Beautifully printed. 6 engraved plates by Henry Fuseli (3) and William Hamilton (3). Good condition, some corners starting to wear. Plates a little foxed but text generally clean. No dust jacket.

Seller: Alexander's Books, Royal Leamington Spa, United Kingdom

Stephen Jones. The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. With Some Accounts of His Writings. C Whittingham, London, 1800.

Price: US$78.01 + shipping

Condition: Fine

Description: THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS GRAY, LL.B. With Some Account of his Writings, the whole Carefully Revised; And Illustrated with Notes, to which are annexed Poems addressed to, and in Memory of Mr. Gray Several of which were Never Before Collected. Stephen Jones. Printed by C Whittingham, London 1800 Second Edition Considerably Enlarged and Improved. 224pp (Northup 85) Fine Binding. This copy is bound in full calf with gilt decoration and banding to the spine Six compartments with a green leather title panel to the second compartment. There are some bumps and rubs commensurate with a book of this age. All plates collated. The stock is tight and bright. 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: 224pp

Seller: Amazing Book Company, Liphook, United Kingdom

GRAY, Thomas.. THE POEMS OF GRAY. A new edition. Adorned with plates.. London: printed by T. Bensley for F.J. Du Roveray; and sold by J. Wright; and T. Hurst, 1800.

Price: US$104.01 + shipping

Description: 8vo, (177mm), xxx,162p. +1p adverts, 6 engraved plates (3 after Henry Fuseli) engraved by Jas Neagle, James Heath and Thomas Holloway, some slight spotting. Contemporary tree marbled calf, gilt border on the sides, backstrip banded and tooled in gilt with back leather lettering piece, the joints and edges rubbed and slightly split at the head of the front joint, armorial bookplate of James Corry, and the signature of Maria Corry on the title. A nice copy of a handsomely printed edition. (ESTC 12189) The half-title and advertisement leaves present.

Seller: Barry McKay Rare Books, Appleby-in-Westmorland, CUMBR, United Kingdom

Thomas Gray. The Poems of Gray : A New Edition. Printed by T. Bensley for F. J. Du Roveray, London, 1800.

Price: US$300.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: 8vo. 1st edition with these illustrations, large paper issue. 19th century straight grain morocco. A.e.g. With bookplate of Robert Day. Bumping and edgewear to boards, with foredges, spine, and joints significantly rubbed. Small puncture mark to top edge of rear board, with small crease to lower foredge. Front hinge starting. Some pencil marking to front free leaf. Darkening to margins of end papers. Very minor foxing throughout, with a few tiny instances of damp staining to leaves. A tightly bound copy. VG.

Seller: Strand Book Store, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.