CURRENT LITERATURE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CATALOGUE OF FIRST EDITIONS, PROOF COPIES, AND MANUSCRIPTS OF BOOKS BY LORD BYRON. (First Edition Club.)
The Bibliographical Catalogue of First Editions, Proof Copies and Manuscripts of Books by Lord Byron, which were the
subject of the Fourth Exhibition held by the First Edition Club, is a piece of printing and general presentment well
worthy of the Club. The Catalogue deserved careful editing, for much of the information it contains cannot easily be found elsewhere. Take, for example, the information and title-page on Byron's Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, which was issued by itself, " price ls. 6d." in 1814. The Ode is a magnificent piece of poetic journalism. We are told that it had no signa- ture, and that the pamphlet was composed of a single sheet folded to make sixteen pages, wove paper, all edges uncut. The size was demy octavo. The binding was drab paper wrappers, lettered in black on front cover. It is added that there is no copy of this book in the British Museum. We venture to suggest that the reprinting of the 03e would be
well worth the consideration of the Clarendon Press. It is true that their scheme for typed facsimile reprints of poetic pieces of journalism was originally announced as confined to the Restoration period and the eighteenth century. It would not, however, be out of place to extend it to the close of the French war, 1815. Though printed for the Club, the book under review can be obtained by members of the public, price thirty shillings.
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