Narrative of a Tour Through Hawaii, or, Owhyhee;

£2,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A unique copy of Ellis’s important book on Hawaii: from the library of the english poet Robert Southey who has carefully read the entire book and marked it with hundreds of pencil marks in the margin. Southey copied over 100 passages from this book into his own commonplace book and was obviously fascinated by Ellis’s detailed and personal account of the Pacific region. Reviewing Ellis’s later work, Polynesian Researches (1829), Southey remarked, “A more interesting book we have never perused.” William Ellis (1794-1872) was a prominent member of the London Missionary Society who travelled extensively through the Polynesian Islands, and Madagascar. The present book, he notes in his preface, was written while in the Sandwich Islands and is based on Ellis’s personal observations of the people, places, customs and traditions of the region. Ellis’s work was the first major reassessment of the Pacific region since the account of James Cook’s voyages in the second half of the 18th-century. This copy has the ownership inscription: “Robert Southey. Keswick [??] Sep^t^ 1826” in Southey’s small, neat and distinctive hand. In addition to his inscription there are numerous small pencil markings in the margins throughout the text indicating passages that Southey found interesting. Many of these pencil markings correspond with the hundreds of extracts from Ellis’s book that Southey copied into his commonplace book (see Southey’s Common-Place Book. Third Series. Analytical Readings (1850) p.5

• Binding: Hardcover

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