BAMFORD, Samuel.

£600 · Offered by Peter Harrington

Hours in the Bowers. First edition of this collection of the poetry, some here printed for the first time, by the English radical Samuel Bamford (1788-1872). The title refers to his time in prison ("bowers" being slang for jail), and Bamford notes that he wrote two of the poems while incarcerated - "Eclogue" and "Hymn to Hope". Bamford makes clear in the preface his feeling, written in the third person, that "he has been confined in a greater number of English Prisons, for the cause of freedom, (by which he means reform,) than any other Englishman living". Many of the poems display the same political radicalism which led to his imprisonment, although the poems are by no means especially incendiary, and also include ditties to his beloved.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.