Description
The first edition, first state of The Sonnets of William Wordsworth, from the library of Ellen Catherine Ricketts, a member of Wordsworth’s inner circle. This copy includes a manuscript poem, presumably written by his wife, Mary Wordsworth.
Small octavo, xi, [1], 477pp, [1], [2, advertisements]. Brown cloth boards, title stamped in gilt on the spine. Printed by Bradbury and Evans. The first state of the text, with a colon after “London” on the title page and the terminal leaf of publisher’s advertisements. Light soiling and spotting to cloth boards. Yellow endpapers. Advertising leaf affixed to front free endpaper. Previous ownership notation on the preliminary advertising leaf and title page. Tissue repair through signature leaf.
This copy is from the library of Ellen Catherine Ricketts, a member of Wordsworth’s inner circle. In 1838, the year this volume was published, Ricketts accompanied Wordsworth on an excursion through the Duddon Valley and recorded an account of the journey.
(Healey 106) (Reed A60)
The poem, presumably written by Mary Wordsworth, was from “To the Same,” composed in 1817 and first published in 1820.
The manuscript poem reads: “Oh! ’tis the heart that magnifies this life, making a truth and beauty of her own; And moss-grown alleys, circumscribing shades, and gurgling rills, assist her in the work. More efficaciously than realms outspread, as in a map, before the adventurer’s gaze- Ocean and Earth contending for regard. Ambleside / Oct. 29, 1838 / William Wordsworth.”
