MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT

(SCOTT, SIR WALTER). LOCKHART, JOHN GIBSON

Published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York, 1902

About this Item

213 x 149 mm. (8 3/8 x 5 7/8"). Five volumes. LOVELY CONTEMPORARY RED HALF MOROCCO, BEAUTIFULLY GILT IN THE STYLE OF THE DOVES BINDERY, raised bands, spines in fine gilt compartments featuring sprays of tulips, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt, other edges untrimmed and (except for the prefatory material in the first volume) ENTIRELY UNOPENED. With frontispiece portraits. ?Small portions of two spine bands, corners, and just a few joints with insignificant wear (the rubbing carefully refurbished), one leaf with jagged fore edge from rough opening, but A LOVELY SET IN NEARLY FINE CONDITION, the bindings unusually lustrous, and the text virtually pristine because obviously unread. In the words of DNB, from the time of its publication, this work "has been regarded, along with Boswell's 'Life of Johnson,' as one of the most important works in the history of biography." Perhaps no one was better situated to write the life of Scott than his friend and son-in-law John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854), who had access to personal papers and to those persons closest to Scott. From the latter, he "collected personal anecdotes and letters . . . and added to them his own intimate knowledge of the man and his works to portray with the power of a successful novelist a character in vivid scenes of place and time." (DNB) Lockhart's devotion to Scott continued beyond his death: at his own request he was interred in Dryburgh Abbey at the feet of his hero. While our edition is uncommon, Lockhart's Scott is readily available in various printings; such pretty bindings as these are decidedly not so frequently seen. Seller Inventory # ST11462a-119

Bibliographic Details

Title: MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York

Publication Date: 1902

Edition: The "Cambridge Edition.".