Haliburton, Hugh [Robertson, James Logie]

Horace in Homespun [In the Rare Dust Jacket]

Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1886. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. A Very Good + or better copy of the first edition, first printing, in a somewhat less than Very Good dust jacket with chips and tears and showing a small piece of decorative tape to each flap. [Some of the tears have archival tape applied to the jacket's verso to prevent growth of such tears.] The closed page block's edges show some foxing and there is scatterd foxing within, primarily to the pastedowns, free endpapers, and the leaves nearest thereto. A presumed prior-owner's name appears in pencil on the half-title and there is correction in pencil to page 7. The front board is lettered in red and illustrated in white, yellow and black and the volume's title page is lettered in black and red. [The book's author, James Logie Robertson, was all of literary scholar, educator, journalist, editor, and author -- including of scholarly works, and sometimes wrote under the name "Hugh Haliburton". His poems were often published in The Scotsman newspaper, and were known by the public as "The Hughies". His fellow-contributors to that paper included Robert Louis Stevenson and Barrie. Robertson's best-known work was indeed "Horace in Homespun", the first edition of which was this 1886 work. As noted in Wikipedia: "Into "Horace in Homespun" he put all that was quintessential in himself—namely, his philosophy of life, his humour, his sense of style, his mastery of dialect, and last , but not least, his poetic art. The idea of the book is simple. Assuming the character of a shepherd of the Ochil Hills, who is also a scholar, he selects a text from the Odes of Horace, and makes this the peg on which to hang the views of a modern upon Life, Love, Friendship, Contentment, with one's lot, the Flight of Time, and Death—in short, those subjects of perennial interest on which his great namesake best descanted and best loved to descant." Copies of the first edition are uncommon to the market (particularly when in a condition as nice as is this copy) and copies in their dust jacket are RARE INDEED. Very good + / very good. Item #3605

Price: $745.00