Pen and Ink Sketches : by a Cosmopolitan.  To which is added Chatterton
Subtitle: a romance of Literary Life
Publisher: William Hayden & Thos. M. Brewer, Atlas Office
Published: 1845
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
Description: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">8vo. pp. 198, [2]. Original brown printed wrappers, spine chipped. Lending library label (‘J. L. Wales’) on front cover.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.5pt;">First edition, very scarce, first book appearance of any of the literary ‘Pen and Ink Sketches,’ preceding the English collected editions (See Bib# 4103447/Fr# 784, Bib# 4103448/Fr# 785, and Bib# 4103449 /Fr# 786 in this collection). Dix’s ‘personal recollections’ of Samuel Rogers, Robert Southey, Sidney Smith, and James and Robert Montgomery originally appeared (as the ‘Introduction,’ dated from Boston, Mass., August 1845, informs us) in the Boston ‘Atlas’ magazine, and were assembled here from and by that periodical. Like all works by the garrulous ex-alcoholic physician, poet, and ‘leech on the Romantic tradition’ (and by now an emigré to the New World) they ‘bear scrutiny for fictive invention’ (see A. Freeman, Bibliotheca Fictiva. A Collection of Books and Manuscripts Relating to Literary Forgery 400 BC–2000 AD. London, 2014, pp. 48-49). The abridged ‘Life’ of Chatterton (pp. 167-198) differs substantially from the notorious English version, peppered with forgeries.</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/catalog/bib_9300799" rel="ugc nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>