Description
The first impression of Notes From Books, In Four Essays, by Henry Taylor, published in 1849. From the library of American novelist, C.A. Bristed. A literary critique of William Wordsworth.
Octavo, xviii, [2], 295pp, [1], [4]. Publisher’s cloth, title stamped in gilt on the spine. Yellow endpapers. No additional printings noted. Light wear to tips of the spine. Old bookseller’s label on the front pastedown. Clean text throughout.
(Cornell Collection, Wordsworth, #844)
The volume belongs to Taylor’s mid-Victorian prose criticism rather than to his better-known dramatic writing, gathering four literary essays, three of them reprinted from the Quarterly Review and principally concerned with modern poetry, especially Wordsworth and Aubrey de Vere, together with an essay titled, The Ways of the Rich and Great.
The prior owner of this copy, C. A. Bristed, was Charles Astor Bristed (1820-1874), an American scholar, critic, and author, who often published under the pseudonym “Carl Benson.” His principal books included Five Years in an English University (New York: Putnam, 1852), The Upper Ten Thousand: Sketches of American Society (London: J. W. Parker, 1852), and Pieces of a Broken-down Critic (Baden-Baden, 1858-59), a four-volume collection of reviews and criticism.
