Practical English Usage, First Edition (5 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. 1st Edition. Type: Book 6th printing.

Hardback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. First edition first printing octavo hardback 640 pp Very Good condition. No inscriptions.

First edition, 8vo, pp. xxiv, [4], 432; largely unopened; 2 engraved plates (1 folding, and bound in upside down); original blue paper-covered boards, cream paper shelfback, manuscript title on spine; extremities rubbed and worn, boards a bit soiled; good and sound. With the ownership signature at the top of the title page of "Wat: Edwd. Wynne July 21st, 1784." One would want that Wynne (1734-1784) is the English lawyer and scholar who owned property in Somerset, a manor in Cornwall, as well as property in Dudley in Wales. According to Wikipedia he had a library of nearly two thousand volumes, this possibly among them. His library was sold after his death in a sale that lasted 11 days. But the "Wat: Edwd. Wynne" is problematic. There was also a Watkin Edward Wynne (1801-1880) a conservative Welsh politician, but the dates are achronistic. On B2 in the gutter are the initials W.E.W.

FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 174 x 111, pp. xxiii [xxiiii] 698], contemporary calf, gilt rules on spine with gilt oval ownership in top pane (rubbed and unreadable), red leather label; front joint slightly cracked but agood copy with the inscription "Grace Blackmore 1779" on the title-page and the arnorial bookplate of "Alex[ander]. Stewart" on the front paste-down end-paper. John Walker was born at Friern Barnet, in the county of Middlesex, on 18 March 1732. Brought up by his mother, he was 'instructed in trade', but when she died, John being still young, he went on the stage, at first with provincial companies, but later at Drury Lane, where he worked under Garrick. This familiarity with actors and the world of the stage is very apparent in his dictionaries, with both the General Idea of a Pronouncing Dictionary and the Rhyming Dictionary being dedicated to Garrick, and references to him and stage pronunciation being quite frequent in the notes to the Pronouncing Dictionary. Alston VI, 570; Vancil, p. 248. The armorial bookplate and the gilt oval armorial stamp indicate the distinguished provenance of Alexander John Robert Stewart (1827-1904). Educated at Trinity College in the University of Cambridge, Stewart was later High Sheriff of County Donegal in Ireland from 1853, and subsequently High Sheriff of County Down from 1861. The earlier ownership inscription is probably in the hand of Grace Blackwood (d. 1824) of County Down. She was the daughter of Sir Robert Blackwood, 1st Baronet Blackwood (1694-1774), of Ballyleidy in County Down. Alston VI, 570; Vancil, p. 248.

First edition, xxiii, [697], unpaginated, ownership stamp of Colin Buchanan (overstamped), some spotting on title, title loose, cont. calf, rubbed, upper cover detached. Dedicated to David Garrick, this is the first edition of Walker's Rhyming Dictionary which continued to be influential throughout the nineteenth century. Alston VI, 570.