Hours of Idleness, A Series of Poems, Original and Translated, finely bound in full Morocco by Hatchards, housed in a quarter Morocco solander box.
Newark: Printed and sold by S. and J. Ridge, 1807. First edition, first issue. Leather. This is the first edition, first issue, of Lord Byron's first published volume of poetry. First issue is confirmed by: repetition of "where" at page 5, lines 2-3; absence of a footnote at p.22 and the line "Those tisses of falsehood which folly has wove"; the misprint "thnndr" at page 114, line 4; the misprint "Thc" at page 181, line 21.
The full deep red Morocco goatskin binding features raised spine bands terminating in blind-stamped triangular hinge designs on the covers, blind-rule bordered compartments, and triple blind-rule bordered covers. The contents are bound with gilt top edges and hand-marbled endpapers framed by triple gilt-ruled turn ins. Gilt print on the lower turn-in of the front pastedown attributes this binding to “HATCHARDS 187 PICCADILLY”. Hatchards is reputedly London’s oldest bookshop, established in 1797, a mainstay of Piccadilly for more than two centuries, counting among its customers the royal households of Britain and Europe.
The binding remains square and unfaded with minimal overall wear to the boards. Nonetheless, the joints show appreciable abrasion, the front joint quite tender, though still holding. The contents, bound without the half title, are notably clean, with only a trivial hint of spotting. Faint moisture stains to the fore edges penetrate only slightly into the blank fore edge margins of the text between pages in the latter part of the text. The front pastedown features the printed bookplate of "James L. Weil, Publisher". Weil (1929-2006) was an American poet and small press publisher and founder of the Elizabeth Press (1963-1981), an important publisher of American poetry in the 1960s and 1970s. (Reference: Yale Archives) A more recent gift inscription is inked on the upper blank recto preceding the title page.
The book is housed in a quarter deep red Morocco solander box with dark oatmeal cloth sides and fine, paper-lined interior. Condition of the solander box is near fine, unfaded with no appreciable wear and just a touch of soiling to the upper front cover.
Poet George Gordon Noel Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788–1824) produced this, his first regularly published volume of poetry, at age 19, early even given the abbreviated span of his short, romantic, and romanticized life. It proved more significant than its literary quality. Byron was "devastated by an ad hominem attack in the Edinburgh Review" by Henry Brougham "which ridiculed the vanities of the author of the preface to Hours of Idleness... This infamous review is important in the development of Byron's writing for two reasons. First, it led directly to the publication of his first major poem, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, in 1809. Second, it exposed a number of contradictions which Byron experienced and registered in himself and in contemporary society."
References: ODNB; Yale Archives. Item #008488
Price: $2,250.00