Author: NEWBERY (Francis):
Title: Donum Amicis. Verses on Various Occasions By Francis Newbery, Esquire.
Description: London: Printed for the Author, by Thomas Davison..., 1815 FIRST EDITION. Tall 8vo, 196 x 125 mms., pp. [vi], 72, including half-title, printed on fine paper, uncut, original boards; spine defective, with loss of paper, boards still attached but loose. Inscribed on half-title, "John Hope Esqr/ From the Author." There are several John Hopes who might have received this from Newbery, but in this case, I don't think it is the military officer, Sir John Hope (1765 - 1836). I am, however, happy to be proved wrong. The publisher Francis Newbery (1743 - 1818) started his life selling patent medicines, but turned to publishing on the death of his father, John Newbery (1713 - 1767). He was a gifted musician, keen on the violin and amateur theatricals, and his ambitions there were not helped by Samuel Johnson's remark "telling him that he had better give his fiddle to the first beggar-man he met, on the grounds that the time required for practice interfered with professional pursuits" (ODNB). William Crotch (1775 - 1841) set many of his poems to music, as did William Callcott. The present text contains a translation of the second epistle of Horace (with Latin text). John Martin: Bibliographical Catalogue of Books Privately Printed (1834), p. 146.

Keywords: poetry priinting history literature


See more books from our catalog: Poetry