THE FANCY.
With a Prefatory Memoir and Notes by John Masefield and thirteen illustrations by Jack B. Yeats. Pp. [ii]+30+xxiv+88, frontispiece and 12 text or headpiece illustrations, the title page printed in red & black, glossary; f'cap. 8vo; printed grey paper wrappers with bevelled fore-edges, the backstrip slightly discoloured, edges a trifle rubbed and creased; fore and bottom edges uncut; upper hinge tender, a little light foxing; Elkin Matthews, London, 1905. First edition thus, first issue? (published at half-a-crown - the more common Satchel Series issue appearing in the same year at the increased price of one shilling). *From the library of Australian bibliophile Claude Prance, with his small book label above his pencilled signature on verso of upper wrapper. Originally published in 1820 under the pseudonym of Peter Corcoran (a famous boxer of the 1770s). John Hamilton Reynolds (1796-1852) is today best remembered as a close friend of Keats. His first volume of verse was published in 1814, and he initially devoted most of his time to literature and sport, but from about 1818 onwards (particularly after the death of Keats in 1820) he became more committed to his legal career. John Masefield, in his Introduction to this edition, notes that The Fancy was written shortly before Reynolds' marriage, and suggests that it can be viewed as 'his final parting with his youth, his poetry, and the forbidden delights of youth... Instead of going with his friends to talk art, or to watch boxing, he was to sit at home and play cribbage'. The glossary at the end of this volume is of sporting (and drinking) slang of the period, and defines The Fancy as 'Life preserved in spirit'. Item #076201
Price: $800.00