Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats

London: Chiswick Press, 1935. First thus. Fine. Limited edition, number 190 of 250 numbered copies printed on hand-made paper. A Fine copy. Small quarto (8 3/8 x 7 1/8 inches; 214 x 181 mm.). [1-4], 5-31, [32], [2, limitation printed in red, verso blank] pp. Title-page printed in black and red, chapter numbers printed in red. Publisher's unbleached vellum by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, other uncut, red silk ties. Housed in the original gray card slipcase with matching limitation number. Slipcase slightly split otherwise fine.

Shelley’s poetic eulogy in honor of his friend and fellow poet John Keats (1795-1821). (truncated) Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) began writing immediately after hearing the news of his friend’s passing, and looked to the classical form of elegiac poems and authors like Milton and Virgil when crafting his verse. Little did he know that soon he too would meet a tragic early end. Husband to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, and friend of Lord Byron, Shelley moved in a radical literary circle and is considered one of the most significant Romantic poets in the English language. From sonnet to epics, he is celebrated for his moving philosophical verse, such as famous poems Queen Maub, Ozymandias, Mont Blanc, Ode to the West Wind, or Prometheus Unbound. Here his elegy republished as a fine press limited edition printed by the Chiswick Press and bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

The story of the Sangorski & Sutcliffe Bindery reads like something out of a novel—when two of Douglas Cockrell’s talented apprentices, Frances Sangorski and George Sutcliffe, were laid off during an economic downturn they began working out of an attic. Eventually their bindery would be famous for its intricate multicolored leather inlays and elaborate gold and jeweled bindings.

Glaister, 94; Ransom, 33. Fine. (Inventory #: 6429)