HOWARD (John). BROWN (James Baldwin):

Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of John Howard, the Philanthropist; Compiled from his own diary, in the possession of his family, his confidential letters, the communications of his surviving relatives and friends; and other authentic sources of information. Second Edition.

London: Printed for Thomas and George Underwood..., 1823. Large 8vo, 213 x 120 mms., pp. [vii], viii - xxxii, 657 [658 Errata and directions to binder], including half-title, engraved portrait of Howard as frontispiece, one other engraved portrait of Henrietta Howard, his second wife, contemporary half calf, marbled boards spine ornately gilt, red morocco label; slight wear to binding but a very good copy, with the contemporary inscription "Mrs. Fletcher/ Castle Street" on the recto of the leaf before the half-title. This biography was first published in 1818.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 6833

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography philanthropy prose

HUET (Pierre Daniel). AIKIN (John):

Memoirs of the Life of Peter Daniel Huet, Bishop of Avranches: Written by Himself; and translated from the original Latin, with copious notes, biographical and critical by John Aikin, M. D.

London: Printed for Longmna, Hurst, Ress, and Orme..., 1810. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 2 volumes. Large 8vo, 210 x 125 mms., pp. xxiv, [iv], 366, including half-title in volume 2, contemporary mottled calf, gilt border on covers, gilt spines (faded), red morocco labels; spines very slightly dried, but a very good set. The French scholar and philosopher Pierre Daniel Huet (1630 - 1721) was widely read in 18th century England, and his book Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l'esprit humain (1723) was translated by E. Combe in 1725. This is a translation of Petri Danielis Huetii episcopi Abrincensis Demonstratio evangelica published in 1722. It was reviewed in th London Quarterly Review for 1810: "The translator has performed his part with sufficient accuracy and industry, as far as we have observed; and conveyed the meaning of the original in smooth and easy language." The Monthly Review noticed the book, giving a long precis of the life and work of Huet, concluding with this compliment to Aikin: "We are obliged to Dr. Aikin for giving these memoirs an English dress, and for adding to the value of his work by his notes, which convey much acceptable information."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8772

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography trade prose

HUME (David). HUME-ROUSSEAU DISPUTE.

Exposé Succinct de la Contestation qui s'est élevée entre M. Hume et M. Rousseau, avec les pieces justificatives.

A Londres, 1766. 8vo, pp. xiv, 127 [128 blank], recent full calf; signature inked out from top margin of title-page, but a good copy. Hume's account of the controversy between himself and Rousseau was first published in Paris on 20 October 1766, translated from English by J. B. A. Suard and edited by d'Alembert. This is the counterfeit edition, printed in London, with press figures, probably published in early November, 1766. See W. B. Todd's note in Book Collector, vii (1958), 191. Chuo 78.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 6486

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography Scottish Enlightenment prose French

HUME (David). BURTON (John Hill):

Life and Correspondence of David Hume. From the Papers bequeathed by his nephew to the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and other original sources.

Edinburgh: William Tait..., 1846. FIRST EDITION. Large 8vo, 225 x 131 mms., pp. [vii] viii - xvii [xviii blank], 480; [vi], 534, including half-titles, engraved portrait of Hume in each volume, original cloth, paper labels on spine; some light foxing in text, labels chipped, but a very good set. See the review in The Presbyterian review and religious journal for 1847 at https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uBYEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA394&lpg=PA394&dq=review+burton+life+and+correspondence+of+david+hume&source=bl&ots=og4cWCgGBX&sig=ACfU3U00h2-98OOTkPcUeovNG8alp6LOFg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHv6Ol9pnoAhXGURUIHeQPDzg4ChDoATAEegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=review%20burton%20life%20and%20correspondence%20of%20david%20hume&f=false

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 9537

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: Biography Scottish prose Scottish Enlightenment

HURTADO DE MENDOZA (Diego):

The Life and Adventures of Lazarillo Gonsales, Surnamed de Tormes. Written by Himself. Translated from the Original Spanish, and illustrated with Sixteen Copper Plates, neatly engraved. In Two Parts. The Nineteenth Edition.

London: Printed for S. Bladon..., 1777. 12mo, 153 x 84 mms., pp. xi [xii blank], 165 [166 "Advertisement," 167 "Epitaph," 168 blank], engraved frontispiece and 15 engraved plates, each about 12 mms. shorter than adjoining text block, contemporary calf, marbled boards (rubbed), gilt spine, dark olive green morocco label; slight wear to spine and corners, but a very good copy, with the Wittersham House armorial bookplate, with an African head on top of armorial shield, on the front past-down end-paper, very late 19th century inscription on recto of front free end-paper: "This celebrated work was written by Fray Juan de Ortega. Vide Sir William Stirling Maxwell's Cloister Life of Charles 1. 5th ed. p. 151. S. G. S. It is now however confidently ascribed to the Castillian Statesman Diego Hurtado de Mendoze (18990". Lazarillo de Tormes was published separately in three different cities in in 1554: Alcalá de Henares, Burgos and Antwerp. The Alcalá de Henares edition adds some episodes which were probably written by a second author. It was put on the Inquisitions Index even before it was published It was translated into French in 1560 and into English in 1586 as The Pleasaunt Historie of Lazarillo de Tormes a Spaniarde: Wherein is conteined his Marueilous Deedes and Life. With the Straunge Aduentures happened to him in the Seruice of Sundrie Masters. Drawen out of Spanish by Dauid Rouland of Anglesey. The translation here is certainly different from that text and seems to derive from a text printed in London in 1708 (San Diego library only and not on ECCO); the plates seem also to derive from this printing.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8081

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography illustration literature

HURTREL (Alice):

Les Amours de Catherine de Bourbon...et du Comte de Soissons.

Paris, Georges Hurtrel..., 1882. Small 8vo, pp. 218, title-page in red and black, frontispiece and 8 full-page illustrations, numerous head- and tail-pieces in text, original printed wrappers (soiled), uncut.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3050

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography French prose French women

JOHNSON (Samuel):

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.

Dublin: Printed for A. Leathley, J. Exshaw, M. Saunders...[inter alia], 1775. 2 volumes in 1. 12mo, 162 x 97 mms., pp. [ii], 192; [3] 26 - 120, 289 -384, contemporary calf, rebacked, with old label laid, but with hinges rather crudely taped, with an autograph "S West head" on the front paste-down end-paper and another in pencil on the top margin of the title-page. Fleemanj 75.1J/4. "The printer made an attempt to produce a page-for-page reprint of the 1st London 8vo edition...in a 2 vol. 12mo format, but the effort failed after 2 sheets..., and in vol. 2 where the pagination commenced at 25 the attempt was less successful, though a new star was again made at F1 (p. 289). This section may have been the work of another printer if the work was shared out to hasten the reprint, thought the type is the same." The reprint was, of course, a piracy.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8981

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography printing history prose

JOHNSON (Samuel):

The Lives of the most eminent English Poets: With Critical Observations on their Works.

Edinburgh: Printed for James Sawers [by R. Chapman, Glasgow]..., 1818. 4 volumes. 12mo, `158 x 90 mms., pp. [iv], xxiv, 311 [312 blank]; [iv], 310; [iv], 336; [iv], 314, engraved portrait of Johnson (by E. Mitchell after Reynolds), dated 1818 as frontispiece in volume 1, contemporary calf, gilt borders on covers, gilt spines, black leather labels (chipped), marbled end-papers; spines a bit rubbed but a good set. William Cowper was not quite as enthusiastic as many about Johnson's magnum opus. Writing to William Unwin in 1779, he remarked, "I have been well entertained with Johnson's biography, for which I thank you: with ne exception, and that a swingeing one, I think he has acquitted himself with his usual good sense and sufficiency. His treatment of Milton is unmerciful to the last degree. A pensioner is not likely to spare a republican; and the Doctor, in order, I suppose, to convince his royal patron of the sincerity of his monarchial principles, has belaborued that great poet's character with the most industrious cruelty." Foxon 79.4LP/28a. This edition was re-issued in London in 1819, with cancel title-pages.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 7626

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography literary history literature

JORDAN (Dorothy). FRIEND (Confidential):

Public and Private Life of that Celebrated Actess, Miss Bland, Otherwise Mrs. Ford, or, Mrs. Jordan; Late Mistress of H. R. H. the D. of Clarence; now King William IV., Found of the Fitzclarence Family: Delineating The Vicissitudes attendant on her Early Life; The Splendour of her Noon-tide Blaze, as Mistress of the Eoyral Duke; and her untime Dissolution at St. Cloude, near Paris,-- resulting from a Broken Heart. Acompanied by Numerous Remarks and Anecdotes of Illustrious and Fashionable Characters. By a Confidential Friend of the Departed.

London: Published by J. Duncombe..., n. d. [c. 1886]. 8vo, 135 x 200 mms., pp. 117 [118 blank], contemporary vellum-style boards, red morocco label.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5876

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography women prose women

KAMES (Henry Home, Lord). TYTLER (Alexander Fraser):

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Honourable Henry Home of Kames. Containing Sketches of the Progress of Literature and General Improvement in Scotland during the Greater Part of the Eighteenth Century.

Edinburgh: Printed for William Creech; and T. Cadell and W. Davies, London, 1807. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 4to, pp. xvi, 329 [330 blank], 105 [106 blank, 107 "To the Binder," 108 blank]; xi [xii blank], 253 [254 blank], 163 [164 errata], including half-title in each volume, engraved portrait (slightly spotted and off-setting on title) of Kames in volume 1, 2 engraved plates of hand-writing in volume 2, recently rebound in quarter calf, morocco labels, marbled boards. Tytler's biography of Kames is a curiously common book, given that only 750 copies of the first edition were printed, and it did not sell well. Tytler (who was created Lord Woodhouselee in 1802) persuaded the publishers to produce another edition, which appeared in 1814, after Tytler's death in 1813. When no reviews of the work had appeared, Kames wrote to the publishers on 21 October 1808 (ms. letter in NLS) asking them to send copies to the Critical Review and the Monthly Review, with his compliments. The Critical Review devoted 28 pages to it in January and February, 1809, concluding that "it contains a great variety of important matter; and...those who will read it through with as much attention as we have done, will find it a reservoir of much instruction and amusement." The Monthly Review detected an "air of pomposity" in it but praised it for its "variety of curious facts concerning the progress of literature in Scotland."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5213

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography philosophy prose Scottish Enlightenment

KLOPSTOCK. [SMITH (Elizabeth)], editor and translator:

Memoirs of Frederick and Margaret Klopstock. Translated from the German by the Author of "Fragments in Prose and Verse."

Bath: Printed by Richard Cruttwell..., 1808. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. xii, 236, contemporary calf, gilt spine. A very good copy. This work is based on letters given to Smith (1776 - 1806) by Dr Mummsen of Altona, one of several works published after her early death. She was an exceptionally gifted woman, described by her mother "a living library; but locked up, except to a chosen few."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5147

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography translation prose literature

LOUIS XV. MOUFFLE d'ANGERVILLE:

Vie Privée de Louis XV; ou Principaux Évémens, Particularités et Anecdotes de son Regne.

A Londres, Chez John Peter Lyton, 1781. 4 volumes. 12mo, pp. viii, 398; [iv], 403 [404 blank]; [iv], 399 [400]; [iv], 391 [392 blank], including half-titles, engraved portrait and two other engraved portraits and engraved vignette on title-page in volume 1, 3 engraved portraits in volume 4, contemporary sheepskin, gilt spines, red and green leather labels; front cover volume 1 detached, front joints volumes three and four cracked, some other general wear to binding. This note from the publisher appears on the verso of the title-page of the first volume: "All the Editions of this Work, which might appear without the Vignette on the Tittle [sic], and the Portraits &c. ought to be looked upon as Incompleat, and no ways to be relayed [sic] on. London the 1. of December 1780. John Peter Lyton." In the above set, the vignette appears on the title-page of the first volume only; the other volumes have a pattern of ten ornaments in a triangle shape. ESTC locates three different continental editions in French. The above set conforms to the description of t113040, probably printed in Amsterdam. The other two continental imprints (t177185 "printed on the continent" and n062240 "?Paris") are clearly different printings.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 2822

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography prose French

MACAULAY. TREVELYAN (George Otto):

The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay. New Edition.

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1880. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. xiii [xiv blank], 483 [484 blank]; viii, 490, including half-titles, engraved portrait in volume 1, contemporary tree calf, gilt border on covers, spines ornately gilt in compartments, red and green morocco labels, marbled edges and end-papers; joints a little rubbed and worn, tops and bases of spines slightly chipped, but generally a very good and attractive set.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3925

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography prose

MACDIARMID (John):

Lives of British Statesmen.

London: Printed by T. Bensley...for Longman..., 1807. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 295 x 228 mms., pp. xii, 577 [578 blank], [ii], 29 [30 blank, 31 - 36 adverts], engraved portrait of Sir Thomas More as frontispiece, uncut, original boards; spine defective, covers detached. Born in Perthsire in 1779 and educated at the universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews, Macdiarmid moved to London to make his living as a man of letters. He published two books on military matters before this one. Isaac Disraeli, in his Calamities of Authors (1812) records that "Some research and reflection are combined in this literary and civil history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--but it was written with the blood of the author, for Macdiarmid died of over-study, and exhaustion."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 6757

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography History prose

MACKINTOSH (Sir James):

Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh. Edited by his Son, Robert James Mackintosh. Second Edition.

London: Edward Moxon, 1836. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. [ii], ix [x blank], 499 [500 printer's imprint]; vii [viii blank], 524, including half-title in each volume, engraved frontispiece in each volume, original boards, paper labels on spine; spines creased, with spine of volume 1 just starting to split, volume 2 chipped at head. These Memoirs were first published in 1835, and no further editions were published after this second edition. The work remains the chief source of biographical information about Mackintosh.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3032

Catalogue: Biography

Keywords: biography prose Scottish Enlightenment