Keats (John)

Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and other Poems,

first edition, half-title, verso with imprint, 8pp publisher’s catalogue at rear, slight foxing throughout, contemporary quarter sheep over marbled boards, uncut, rubbed and worn at extremities, contemporary list in ink to front paste-down, presentation annotation regarding East India Company to front endpaper and ‘Number Twenty One’ in ink to verso, another ink presentation to verso of title-page, contemporary sketches to half-title [p.105], and another contemporary pencil sketch (possibly a rendition of Keats' House), to rear endpaper. [Ashley 3:15; Grolier/English 167; Hayward 233], 12mo, for Taylor and Hessey, 1820.

⁂ An interesting and largely unsophisticated copy of Keats's last and most important book, which includes some of his best-loved poems - "Ode to a Nightengale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode to Psyche," and "Ode to Melancholy." Lamia was published in July 1820, less than a year before his death from tuberculosis in Rome.