ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel.

£3,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Dante and His Circle. First edition thus, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page to his friend and "constant correspondent": "To T. H. Hall Caine, with regards & best wishes, D. G. Rossetti, Xmas 1879". An excellent association: Thomas Henry Hall Caine (1853-1931) was Rossetti's closest friend in the last years of the poet's life, and his first biographer after his death.Caine's friendship with Rossetti began in July 1879, when one of his lectures, "The Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti", was published in Colburn's Magazine. Caine sent a copy of the magazine to Rossetti, and the poet wrote back that same month, the first of some 200 letters they would send one another over the next two years. Rossetti later described to Caine how their exchanges were "among the largest bodies of literary letters I ever wrote" (Caine, p. v).In one of their earliest letters, dated 23 November 1879, Rossetti offered to send Caine a copy of his latest work ("Have you got - or do you know - my book of translations called Dante and His Circle? If not, I'll send you one") and duly posted the present copy to him the following month. It arrived by Christmas, and Caine wrote back on 19 January to thank Rossetti for the volume. "Out of regard for your patience, I must reserve the expression I should like to offer, of the great enjoyment I have found in your Dante and His Circle. I am now reading, at intervals, portions of it a second time and hope soon to know it as well as I could

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