CIBBER (Colley):

An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, Comedian, and Late Patentee of the Theatre-Royal. Written by Himself. The Second Edition.

London: Printed by John Watts for the Author..., 1740. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 488, title-page in red and black, with last gathering containing Contents leaves misfolded, contemporary calf, new crude morocco label; lacks portrait, front cover detached, rear joint cracked, top and base of spine chipped. With the armorial bookplate of F. P. Young D. D. ("Robson fecit" beneath name) on the front paste-down end-paper, contemporary autograph "Henry Coventry" on title-page, and a note in a later hand (probably early 19th century) about Anne Bracegirdle, the actress. One of Cibber's "regular drinking and gambling companions at White's gentlemen's club was Robert Walpole" (Oxford DNB). It was no coincidence that Cibber was made Poet Laureate while Walpole was Prime Minister. For years Cibber exercised his "untiring support of the Whigs, the party of Prime Minister Robert Walpole" (Oxford DNB). Robert Walpole's son Horace Walpole was so impressed with Cibber's Apology that he said it "deserved immortality". Samuel Johnson admitted it was "entertaining" and "very well done", though he disliked Cibber personally. This copy of the second edition of Cibber's Apology (1740), published the same year as the first, was almost certainly owned by Horace Walpole's close associate Henry Coventry (c.1710-1752), the deist philosopher and miscellaneous writer, as the title-page is signed with that name in a contemporary hand. Manuscript material of any kind in the hand of this philosopher is very rare. The entry in the Oxford DNB on him seems to cite nothing in his hand -- unless the will which is listed happens to be in his hand. Coventry was educated at Eton then Magdalene College, Cambridge, and became a Fellow of the latter. The bookplate is that of a Cantabrigian as well: Thomas Patrick Young (b. circa 1725, d. 1778), Fellow and Benefactor of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Painted by Nathaniel Dance-Holland (1735-1811), Young's portrait hangs on the wall at Caius, and can be seen on the Art UK website. The bookplate is Franks 32933, but Howe does not identify the owner (E. R. J. Gambier Howe, Franks Bequest: Catalogue of British and American Book Plates Bequeathed to the Trustees of the British Museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, 3 vols [1903-1904], Vol. 3, p. 252). Sir Egerton Brydges notes that Thomas Patrick Young went "with his friend and patron, Lord Viscount Townshend, into Ireland" (Restituta: Or, Titles, Extracts, and Characters of Old Books in English Literature, Revived [1816], Vol. 4, p. 382). This must be a reference to a trip taken with Charles Townshend, 3rd Viscount Townshend (1700-1764), who was the nephew (or, to be most accurate, the half nephew) of the Right Honourable Henry Pelham (1694-1754). Pelham was of course the dedicatee of Cibber's Apology, and Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 to 1754.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 4564

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography theatre

COOK (James). KIPPIS (Andrew):

The Life of Captain James Cook.

Basil: Printed by J. J. Tourneisen, 1788. FIRST CONTINENTAL EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, 203 x 128 mms., pp. xii, 302 [303 adverts, 304 blank]; [iv], 326, contemporary half calf, slightly orange/lemon coloured boards, spines gilt to a botanical motif, morocco labels; fore-edges of binding very slight affected by damp, spines and corners a bit worn, tops and bases of spines very slightly chipped, most of numberng label on spine of volume 2 missing. "There are numerous statues and monuments to Cook in many parts of the world, but the monument erected by Palliser in the grounds of The Vache, his country house in Chalfont St Giles, is perhaps the most significant. It consists of a square plinth, within a square tower, open on all sides, with a lengthy eulogy to Cook inscribed on the four sides of the plinth, beginning with the words 'To the Memory of Captain James Cook The ablest and most renowned Navigator this or any country hath produced'. In 1874 an obelisk to Cook's memory was erected near the spot where he fell, but the best memorial to him is the present-day map of the Pacific, which he did so much to shape" (ODNB). The Analytical Review for September, 1788, reviewing the London edition, concluded with this endorsement: "The language would, probably, in some places admit of a higher polish, but in general it is perspicuous, easy, and natural, and, in our opinion, more agreeable to the standard of classical simplicity, than the verbose, tumid, and highly figurative style so fashionable at present."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8744

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography travel prose

[?COOKE (William)]:

Theatrical Biography: Or, Memoirs of the Principal Performers of the Three Theatres Royal. Drury-Lane. Mr. Garrick...[inter alia]. Covent-Garden. Mr. Ross...[inter alia]. Hay-Market. Mr. Foote...[inter alia]. Together with Critical and impartial Remarks on their respective professional Merits.

London: Printed for S. Bladon..., 1772. 2 volumes in 1. Small 8vo, 147 x 89 mms., pp. [ii], vii [viii blank], 156; [ii], 147 [148 blank, 149 - 153 index], contemporary calf, later reback in roan, morocco, new end-papers; corners a bit worn, but a good copy. A short review in The Monthly Review for 1772 commented, "On the whole, these Theatrical Lives, though not of the most exemplary or moral kind, are written in a sprightly, agreeable strain; and the Author seems to have been well furnished with anecdotes proper for such an undertaking: but of the authenticity of these materials, we are not altogether competent judges." Such a sentiment has seldom stopped many reviewers.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 7988

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography theatre literature

[COOPER (John Gilbert)]:

La Vie de Socrate Traduitte [sic] de l'Anglois.

A Amsterdam, par la Compagnie, 1751. FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION. 12mo (in 8s and 4s), pp. 16, [2], xiii [xiv blank], 17 - 247 [248 blank], engraved portrait of Socrates as frontispiece, engraved title-page; first two gatherings misbound, with half-title and preface inserted after p. 16, contemporary continental calf, gilt spine; binding very worn, with joints cracked, loss of leather to corners, rear joint with early, crude reinforcement, ex-library with armorial library bookplate on front paste-down end-paper, and library stamps on the verso of the front free end-paper and the recto of the following leaf as well as the stamp "Hilopostus/ Doctor impenetrabilis". Cooper's life of Socrates was first published by Dodsley in 1749, with a second edition in 1750. The translation is by M. de Combles.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 4802

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography translation prose French

DALLAS (Robert Charles):

Recollections Of The Life Of Lord Byron, From The Year 1808 To The End Of 1814; Exhibiting His Early Character And Opinions, Detailing The Progress Of His Literary Career, And Including Various Unpublished Passages Of His Works. Taken From Authentic Documents in the possession of the author. To which is prefixed, an account of the circumstances leading to the suppression of Lord Byron's correspondence with the author and his letters to his mother, lately announced for publication.

London: Printed for Charles Knight..., 1825. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [xii], xcvii [xcviii blank, xcxix blank, xcxx Errata], 344, including half-title, contemporary linen spine, paper label, marbled boards (very rubbed); lacks frontispiece and facsimile, spine snagged at joints and tope and base.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5529

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography letters prose

DOBSON (Susanna):

The Life of Petrarch. Collected from Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarch.

London: Printed for James Buckland..., 1775. 2 volumes. 8vo, 210 x 115 mms., pp. 544 [545 - 555 Index, 556 blank]; [II], 556 [557 - 567 Index, 568 blank, engraved frontispiece in volume 1, attractively rebound in quarter calf, marbled boards, vellum corners, morocco labels; top of title-page volume one slightly defective, ex-library, with several library stamps, including one on title-page of volume 1. Susanna Dobson (d. 1795) was the wife of Matthew Dobson, author of several medical treatises. Mrs. Dobson's first book was her Life of Petrarch, first published in 1775, which derived in part from de Sade's Mémoires pour la vie de Petrarch. The work proved to be very popular and had reached a sixth edition by 1805. Dr. Johnson noted it more-or-less favourably, saying that it "epitomized a very bulky French Life of Petrarch." Mrs. Dobson published other works and translations but could not make inroads into literary circles: Mr. Thrale said of her, in 1784, that she "is jealous of me with her Husband.... I care not.. if She & her Husband were tyed together, & thrown into the Sea." Fanny Burney had rather strong words, describing her as "coarse, low-bred, forward, self-sufficient, and flauting"; Burney's assessment was only slightly attenuated by her further observation that Mrs. Dobson had "a strong and masculine understanding, and parts that, had they been united with modesty, or fostered by education, might have made her a shining and agreeable woman."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3509

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography poetry prose women

DOBSON (Susanna):

The Life of Petrarch. Collected from Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarch. The Second Edition.

London: Printed for the Author; and sold by J. Dodsley..., 1776. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. xxxii, 544; [ii], 560, engraved frontispiece in volume 1, additional errata slip pasted to bottom of errata on p. xxxii in volume 1, contemporary calf, olive green morocco labels; no blank leaves before half-title in volume 1, or before title-page in volume 2, several leaves sprung in volume 1, spines a little dried, tops of spines chipped, lacks numbering label on volume 1. Susanna Dobson (d. 1795) was the wife of Matthew Dobson, author of several medical treatises. Mrs. Dobson's first book was her Life of Petrarch, first published in 1775, which derived in part from de Sade's Mémoires pour la vie de Petrarch. The work proved to be very popular and had reached a sixth edition by 1805. Dr. Johnson noted it more-or-less favourably, saying that it "epitomized a very bulky French Life of Petrarch." Mrs. Dobson published other works and translations but could not make inroads into literary circles: Mr. Thrale said of her, in 1784, that she "is jealous of me with her Husband.... I care not.. if She & her Husband were tyed together, & thrown into the Sea." Fanny Burney had rather strong words, describing her as "coarse, low-bred, forward, self-sufficient, and flauting"; Burney's assessment was only slightly attenuated by her further observation that Mrs. Dobson had "a strong and masculine understanding, and parts that, had they been united with modesty, or fostered by education, might have made her a shining and agreeable woman."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 2761

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography women prose women

DORAN (Dr. [John]):

Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover.

London: Richard Bentley..., 1855. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes, 186 x 115 mms., pp. [iv], 439 [440 blank]; [ii], 395 {396 blank], engraved frontispiece in each volume, contemporary half hard grain dark green morocco and lighter green morocco on boards; some general wear to bindings, but a good set, with the autograph and date "Walter Charles Urquhart/ 1857" on the verso of the front free end-paper of each volume. Urquhart was called to the bar on 24 November 1847. John Doran (1807 - 1878) was took his doctor's degree in the faculty of philosophy at the University of Marburg in Prussia, using his historical research for his book The History and Antiquities of the Town and Borough of Reading, in Berkshire (1835). He was later editor of Notes and Queries. M. Kemble reviewed the work in Fraser's Magazine, where, he found Dr. Doran to be "essentially womanish" and warned Doran away from "the man's work for which he is not fittted...." Rohan Amanda Maitzen: Gender, Genre, and Victorian Historical Writing (1999),

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 9319

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography women literature

DUGUAY-TROUIN (René).

Memoires de Monsieur du Guay-Trouin, Lieutenant General des Armees Navales, Commander de l'Orde Royal & Militaire de Saint Louis.

A Amsterdam, Chez Pierre Mortier, 1740. 8vo, 162 x 100 mms., pp. [ii], 279 [280 blank], engraved frontispiece, title-page in red and black, five folding engraved plates of ships opposite pages xxviii, 86, 120 (2 plates), 122, and facing page 160 is a folding engraved plan of Rio de Janeiro, bound in contemporary sheepskin, spine ornately gilt in compartments, red morocco label; covers a bit scored, but a very good copy, with a presentation inscription on front paste-down end-paper, "From/ Charles Dickson Inglis/ Captain Royal Navy/ To Hilda Inglis/ 11 June 1905." Dickson (born 1834) received his commission on 1 December 1854. This is a reprint of the first authorized edition published in a quarto volume in Paris in 1740 and edited by P. F. G. de Beauchamps. René Duguay-Trouin (1673 - 1736) began his career in the French navy in 1691, and he was almost constant engaged in naval warfare for the next thirty years. His most famous naval expedition was the capture of Rio de Janeiro in 1711. The story goes that Duguay Trouin was encouraged by friends and family to write his memoirs, but he did not wish to see them published; and of course they were.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 9078

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography naval prose

EVELYN (John):

The Life of Mrs. Godolphin. Now first published and Edited by Samuel Lord Bishop of Oxford....

London: William Pickering, 1847. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. xviii, 265 [266 imprint], portrait of Mrs. Godolphin as frontispiece, original cloth; joints crudely repaired.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3080

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography bibliography literature women

FERRAR (Nicholas). TURNER (Francis). [MACDONOG (Terene Michael), editor]:

Brief Memoirs of Nicholas Ferrar, M. A. And Founder of Clare-Hall, Cambridge, Founder of a Protestant Religious Establishment at Little Giddings, Huntingdonshire; Collected from a Narrative by the Right Reverend Dr. Turner, Formerly Bishop of Ely; Now edited with Additions and Biographical Notices of some of Mr. Ferrar's Contemporaries. By a Clergyman of the Established Church.

Bristol: Printed and Published by J. Chilcott..., 1829. FIRST EDITION. 12mo, 181 x 109 mms., pp. [iv], vii [viii blank] [3] 4 - 248, original boards, uncut; binding fragile, with spine cracked and other wear, but with contemporary purchase notes, a transcription of Byron's "Maid of Athens" on the front end-papers, other textual history on verso of front free end-paper, some emendations to text in a contemporary hand. Nicholas Ferrar (1593–1637) established his household of about 40 souls in 1625 at Little Gidding. "The life of the household, subsequently caricatured as 'the Arminian nunnery' in the 1641 pamphlet of that name, was dedicated to the daily reading and discussion of scripture, rigorous education (including household accounting and basic medical skills for Ferrar's nieces) and to the craft of bookbinding" (ODNB). The religious establishment " drew heavily on the early church model recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles" (ODNB). T. S. Eliot made the community famous again with his poem "Little GIdding," published in 1942 and in 1943 as one of the Four Quartets. Let me spoil the story a little bit: when the work was republished in 1837, The Church of England Quarterly Review sourly commented, "These memoirs are weakly written, and abundant in improbabilities: such a precocious boy as little Master Nicholas Ferrar never lived before or since..... His travels savour of romance; and whatever truth may be inherent in them, their decorations are evidently the labour of fancy." So, the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8964

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography religion prose

FOSTER (Sir Michael). DODSON (Michael):

The Life of Sir Michael Foster, Sometime one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench and Record of Bristol. By his Nephew, The Late Micharel Dodson, Barrister at Law.

London: Printed [by J. Nichols and Son...] for J. Johnson and Co...., 1811 Tall 8vo, 238 x 132 mms., pp. viii, 93 [94 blank], engraved portrait (off-setting on title-page), attractively bound in full contemporary red morocco, panelled in gilt and blind on cover, gilt spine, all edges gilt; mild foxing throughout (Preface rather more severely foxed), some slight wear to spine, but a very good copy, with the armorial bookplate of Michael Foster Ward on the front paste-down end-paper, and on the recto of the front free end-paper, a transcript from one of Horace Walpole's letters to George Montau, describing Sir Michael's death as a "greater loss to his country than the prim attorney general...." The nephew, Michael Dodson (1732 - 1799) made a draft, dated 7 February 1795, of his uncle's life, which he sent to editor of Biographia Britannica, Andrew Kippis (1725 - 1795), and it was published in the last issue of that journal, most copies of which were destroyed in a later fire. The present edition was prepared by the barrister and art collector John Disney (1779 - 1857). It was warmly and lengthily (twelve pages) reviewed in The Monthly Review for 1813, concluding "we have no doubt that this small volume will be esteemed a valuable addition both to legal and general biography."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8445

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography law prose

GIBBON (Edward):

Gibbon's Journal to January 28th, 1763. My Journal, I, II & III and Ephemerides. With Introductory Essays by D. M. Low.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1929. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. cxvii [cxviii blank], 261 [262 blank], original publisher's cloth (slightly faded and soiled), newspaper cuttings loosely inserted.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5311

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography scholarship prose

GIBBON (Edward). MORISON (James Cotter):

Gibbon. (English Men of Letters).

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1909. Small 8vo, pp. vi, 192, original cloth.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5321

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography scholarship prose

GIBBON (Edward). MOWAT (R. B.):

Gibbon.

London: Arthur Barker Ltd., 1936. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [vi], 282, portrait frontispiece, original cloth (front cover slightly marked).

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5322

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography scholarship prose