LEWIS, Matthew Gregory.

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

Poems. First edition of the author's only collection of poetry and the last of his works to be published in his lifetime. Also known for his gothic novel The Monk (1796), Lewis's poetry was an early influence on Sir Walter Scott: "Scott himself readily testifies to this" (Peck, p. 122).Lewis's biographer describes the collection as "graceful neoclassical odes and lyrics... The twenty-seven poems exhibit over a dozen stanza patterns, all prosodically flawless and with scarcely a forced line" (Peck, p. 147). The anthology appeared a month after the author's father died, when Lewis inherited the entirety of his father's estate. Provenance: Michael Sadleir, collector, bibliographer, and author; book label – H. Bradley Martin, collector; bookplate; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 1 May 1990, part of lot 3008 – Stephen C. Massey, purchased from Maggs at the sale.

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