THE LETTERS OF JOHN KEATS (Third edition - second impression). This item is unavailable.THE LETTERS OF JOHN KEATS (Third edition - second impression)

Second impression of the third edition, with revisions and additional letters. This impression was published in 1948, after the first impression in 1947 - the book was originally published in two volumes in 1931, and in a one volume edition in 1935, with a second edition appearing in 1942. With five small engraved family portraits as a frontispiece, protected by the original tissue-guard. ***Very good in rust-red cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The gilt is still beautifully bright having been protected by the dustwrapper. The boards are clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine uncreased. Corners sharp. No reading lean to the binding, and no reading creases to the spine. Page block edges clean. Internally also very good, with no inscriptions. Pages clean with no internal foxing. Printed on quality paper. The book would have been described as near fine, but for a ragged tear to the margin of p.11/12, which luckily does not affect the text (please see scans). No other creases or tears. Spine tight. ***In a very good printed dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 21s. net. The dustwrapper is complete, with no major faults - just some light rubbing and creasing at the extremities, with a small closed tear to the top edge of the front panel. No chips or serious tears and no fading. Spine of dustwrapper lightly browned. ***ixx preliminary pages, including the editor's Preface, plus 564 printed pages. 224mm x 155mm. ***'John Keats (31 October 1795 - 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. They were indifferently received in his lifetime, but his fame grew rapidly after his death. By the end of the century, he was placed in the canon of English literature, strongly influencing many writers of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1888 called one ode "one of the final masterpieces."' (Wiki) ***'What manner of man was John Keats, and how did he live the life poetic? The answer to these questions lies, it seems to me, within the pages of this volume of his letters. These letters provide the main source from which any adequate record of those few short years of poetic production and any sound appreciation of his personality must derive, and if it be contended that they give a one-sided view of his nature, it may fairly be claimed that he himself was the only person properly equipped to offer the material for a just estimate of his character. (Quote taken from the editor's original preface) ***'The call for a third edition of the book affords the opportunity to include in the addenda three letters which have come to light since 1935. With the permission of the Literary Committee of the Hampstead Borough Council, I also give from the holograph in the Keats Museum George Keats's last letter to John before leaving England for America for the second and last time.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper). ***A second impression of the third edition of this collection of John Keats' letters, in very good condition, in the original dustwrapper. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…