Beschreibung
Scarce, anonymously published work of New Yorker Laughton Osborne. From the collection of Alexander Hamilton's grandson, Charles A. Hamilton, signed by Charles' wife J. (Julia)F. Hamilton on the front end paper. G., & C., & H. Carvill, 1831. Complete in two volumes. Bound in 1/2 calf with marbled paper over boards. 400pp. / 401pp., errata leaf bound in at end of Vol. 1. Fair to good condition. Hinges cracked but bindings remain sound. Leather labels in good condition; spines are rubbed but gilt titling on black leather label remains clearly legible; damp-staining apparent in edges/margins of Vol. 2's pages; text very good throughout both volumes; edges of boards are worn. Title pages torn across top, it appears, to remove a former owner's name from this controversial epistle. This Tristam Shandy-esque novel was described by Osborne's more famous contemporary and correspondent, Edgar Allan Poe, as "one of his earliest works--if not his earliest. a medley of fact, fiction, satire, criticism, and novel philosophy. It is a dashing, reckless brochure, brimfull of talent and audacity. Of course it was covertly admired by the few and loudly condemned by all of the many who can fairly be said to have seen it at all. It had no great circulation. There was something wrong, I fancy, in the mode of its issue." Poe described the author more generally as "In personal character he is one of the most noticeable men full of generosity, courage, honor chivalrous in every respect but, unhappily, carrying his ideas of chivalry, or rather of independence, to the point of Quixotism at least, if not of absolute insanity. He is one, about retaining whose friendship every generous person regrets the impossibility. No doubt, he has been misapprehended, and therefore wronged, by the world but he should not fail to bear in mind that the source of the wrong lies in his own idiosyncrasy one unintelligible and therefore inappreciable by the mass of mankind. He is a member of a very old and influential formerly a very wealthy, family in New-York. His accomplishments are many and unusual. As poet, painter, and musician he has succeeded nearly equally well and absolutely succeeded as each. His scholarship is extensive; and in every thing he is thorough and accurate. His critical abilities are highly respectable although he is apt to swear somewhat too roundly by Johnson and Pope. Imagination is not Mr. Osborn's forte." [E.A. Poe, THE LITERATI OF NEW YORK CITY, manuscript at the Edgar Alan Poe Society of Baltimore]. Due to the size/weight of this set extra charges to apply for international shipping. Ships from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 289949
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