Poems upon Several Occasions.

LEAPOR (Mrs. [Mary])

Published by London Printed: and Sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane, 1748

FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 188 x 122 mms., pp. 15 [16 blank, 17 - 20 Contents], 282, including list of subscribers. AND: LEAPOR: Poems upon Several Occasions. By the late Mrs. Leapor, of Brackley in Northamptonshire. The Second and Last Volume. London, Printed: and Sold by J. Roberts, in Warwick-Lane, 1751. FIRST EDITION. 8vo,188 x 122 mms., pp. xxxv [xxxvi blank], 324, including second list of subscribers. 2 volumes, uniformly bound in later, probably early 19th century half-calf, gilt rules and black leather labels on spines, marbled boards (rubbed); some spotting with some leaves foxed, lower margin of volume 2 closely trimmed by binder adversely affecting some catchwords and signature marks, bindings a little rubbed, but a good set. The acclaimed working-class poet Mary Leapor (1722-1746) served as a kitchen maid at Weston Hall, a few miles from where she was born in Marston St Lawrence, Northamptonshire, near the market town of Brackley; her parents discouraged her early attempts at writing poetry. Later she worked at Edgcote House but was dismissed from the post when she was 23. She died before any of her poems were printed. David Garrick is said to have written "Proposals for printing by subscription the poetical works, serious and humorous, of Mrs. Leapor," but his name does not appear among the 600 plus subscribers. The second volume was edited by Isaac Hawkins Browne and printed by Samuel Richardson. In Janet Todd's Dictionary of British and American Women Writers (1987), the literary historian Betty Rizzo writes that Mary Leapor's "history and writings attracted wide attention, and her pieces were much re-published, particularly in Poems by Eminent Ladies (1755); she was honoured by inclusion in Duncombe's Feminead (1754)" (pp. 192-3). Rizzo also reminds us that the great poet William Cowper in 1791 judged Leapor to be one of the two best "natural" poets he had encountered in his life. In the Oxford DNB, Stuart Gillespie concludes that "Leapor's verse, largely in the style of Pope, achieves a considerable range of feeling and forcefully displays an individual voice. After renewed interest in her work she is counted one of the leading women poets of her century." The provenance is apropos, as the "W. Dash" of the printed book-label is very likely the bookseller William Dash (b. 1799, d. circa 1883), who, with his father, the bookseller Thomas Dash, of Market-Place, Kettering, Northamptonshire, were major collectors and patrons of Northamptonshire history, and philanthropists of the region. Leapor is of course not only notable as an early woman poet but also as an early Northamptonshire celebrity, despite that celebrity arising largely after her death, as her poetry attained wide circulation. Thomas Dash included Mary Leapor's poetry in book catalogues he issued at Kettering in 1820 and 1824, the Leapor items being priced at two shillings each time. Thomas passed the business on to his son William in the early nineteenth century. Much later, in 1883, Puttick and Simpson auctioned the "Private Library" of the late William Dash of Kettering, in which sale this pair of volumes likely appeared, but I cannot be certain of this as I have not found a single extant copy of the 1883 catalogue. Noting the inclusion of numerous Northamptonshire books, the Dash sale and its catalogue were advertised in The Athenaeum (No. 2924, November 10, 1883, p. 586). The two volumes on offer are ESTC T127827 and ESTC T136743. These were the only two volumes of Leapor's work printed in the eighteenth century. They also formed the core textual matter used by Richard Greene and Ann Messenger, editors of The Works of Mary Leapor, published in 2003 by Oxford University Press. The acclaimed working-class poet Mary Leapor (1722-1746) served as a kitchen maid at Weston Hall, a few miles from where she was born in Marston St Lawrence, Northamptonshire, near the market town of Brackley; her parents discouraged her early attempts at writing poetry. Later she w. Seller Inventory # 10401

Bibliographic Details

Title: Poems upon Several Occasions.
Publisher: London Printed: and Sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane
Publication Date: 1748
Binding: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Edition