BURNS, Robert.

£17,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. First Edinburgh edition, first issue, a fresh copy in the original boards from the library of the discerning collector H. Bradley Martin. Preceded only by the very rare Kilmarnock edition of 1786, the Edinburgh edition contains 22 new pieces, including "To a Haggis" and "Death and Doctor Hornbook".A few months after publication of the Kilmarnock edition, Burns rode to Edinburgh with plans to publish a second edition there, encouraged by the positive reviews of friends, new acquaintances, and Scottish critics. "Published in an edition of about 3000 copies, the 408-page Edinburgh volume of his poems was an immediate success, with ploughman Burns cannily presenting what his preface called 'my wild, artless notes'. Among the new poems added to the volume were the vigorous, slyly modulated Scots poems 'Address to the Unco Guid' and 'Death and Dr Hornbook', as well as the 'Address to Edinburgh', in which Burns on his best behaviour delivers a paean to 'Edina! Scotia's darling seat!'" (ODNB). The first issue misprints "Duke of Boxburgh" for "Roxburgh" in the list of subscribers on page xxxvii, and has the correct printing of the Scots word "skinking" (watery) on page 263, which was later misprinted as "stinking".Provenance: Robert Cunningham (1728-1801), with an early gift inscription to him across the front free endpaper and title page: "To Gen. Rob. Cunningham, Dublin Ireland, Ald Lang Syne, Should ald aquantance be forgott, A D to G R C". C

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