The Odd Fellows Song-Book and Rum Casket of Mirth for 1804:

£850 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Rare. Unrecorded. No copies of this edition found in either OCLC or Copac. This is the earliest surviving edition (and possibly the first edition) of Fairburn’s collection of songs (the next is the 1806 edition – one copy only at the American Antiquarian Society and after that the 1808 edition – one copy only at Indiana University). A mad-cap annual compendium of popular songs from the London theatres, including many by Charles Dibdin as well as John Collins’ “Shakespeare’s seven ages”. At the end of the book is a list of “Toast and Sentiments” (p.46) which includes 39 drinking toasts – such as “ Printing in sheets, and the pleasure of a first impression”. An announcement at the end reads: “As we propose to publish the Odd Fellow’s Sing-Book annually and wishing to make it peculiarly appropriate to these Sons of Conviviality; we shall be particularly obliged for any New Songs or Sentiments, which may be written for this United Society, and to be sent to the Publisher before October next; and, as we wish to reward the Genius, and stimulate the young Poet to honourable exertion, we here offer a reward of half-a-dozen New Song-Books for the best comic Song or Medley, applicable to the Odd Fellow’s Society” (p.46). In the present collection the song “Glee” is addressed “To Mr. Fairburn, Minories” from a reader “W.B. Britannia-Lodge, St. George’s in the East” (p.24). “My earliest career was, however, of the humblest kind, and was rather editorial than original. A sixpenny pamphlet

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