Author: SANDERSON (Thomas):
Title: Original Poems.
Description: Carlisle, Printed by F. Jollie; and sold by W. Clarke, F. Robons, and R, Faulder, London. 1800. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 12mo, 170 x 100 mms., pp. [iv] v - xxiii [xxiv blank], 238, including 15 page list of subscribers, recent binder's cloth, paper label on spine; short tear in lower fore-margin of title-page, some slight fingering and soiling of text. Thomas Sanderson (1759 - 1929) was first educated by his father and then went to Sebergham School, which was founded in 1525 and is still in existence today. He served as schoolmaster on two separate occasions, and he published this volume of poetry in 1800. A family legacy enabled him to give up work latterly on a farm) and devote his life to literature. The work was noticed in The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine: "The respectable list of subscribers, prefixed to this little volume, conveys a favourable idea of the Author's character, thought it may possibly not be admitted as a decisive proof of his poetical abilities. His merit, however, as a poet will not be disputed by any one who reads the book before us with an unpredjudiced mind." The Monthly Review was a little less enthusiastic: "The productions of thjis Cumbrian bard are offered to the public with great modesty.... Full gladly, therefore, would we have placed the bays on Mr. Sanderson's head, if the laws of our court would permit such a decision: but we cannot award t diffidence the wreath that is due to genius alone; and although Mr. S.' s poems have given us an impression of his worth and good sense, they have not excited our admiration of his talents for composition." The subscribers include many poets and theatre people, e. g. James Elphinstone, Robert Southey, "Peter Pindar," Joseph Grimaldi; and a John Price, Esq. is also found among them. The poems include an elegy "To the Memory of Robert Burns,the Scottish poet" and a Sonnet to Edmund Burke.

Keywords: poetry provincial imprint literature


See more books from our catalog: Poetry