- 1
Arnold, Matthew
Estimate
45,000 - 65,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- Alaric at Rome. A prize poem recited in Rugby School. June XII, MDCCCXL.Rugby: Combe and Crossley, 1840.
- Paper, ink, leather
8vo (212 x 136mm). Original pink printed wrappers with school arms on front cover; faint center crease. Red straight-grained morocco slipcase. Very fine.
first edition, presentation copy, of arnold's very rare first published work
The author only acknowledged this poem in a letter to Edmund Gosse, written just two months before his death: 'Yes, "Alaric at Rome" is my Rugby prize poem, and I think it is better than my Oxford one, "Cromwell"; only you will see that I had been very much reading "Childe Harold"' (Letters of Matthew Arnold, edited by Cecil Y. Lang, 6: 346).
Little is known of Edward Armitage, the recipient of this copy, beyond the fact that he was a fellow pupil at Rugby. (The upper corner is inscribed "E. Armitage from the author"). Thomas Smart, Arnold's bibliographer, knew only of Edmund Gosse's copy of this anonymous work, but Wise claimed to know of ten examples - allowing him to pass off copies of his 1893 reprint as genuine.
Before its purchase in 1905, an earlier owner asked Dodd, Mead & Company to authenticate Arnold's handwriting on this copy. Luther S. Livingston gave this guarantee from 'Mr. Dodd' also supplied a transcription of a letter from the English firm from which they had acquired it. Besides further authenticating the inscription, this pointed out that Thomas Wise possessed 'a very interesting document -- the Master of Rugby's report of the said Armitage's studentship, &c. at Rugby -- signed "T. Arnold" ... He [Wise] wished very much to buy the "Alaric" as his own has no cover & is not quite (tho' very near) as large, & it of course has no presentation inscription.'
The most desirable surviving copy of Matthew Arnold's first publication, printed when he was seventeen. Presentation copy, inscribed by Arnold on the front wrapper, "E. Armitage Esqr. from the Author." Only one other inscribed copy is known, at the Morgan Library.
first edition, presentation copy, of arnold's very rare first published work
The author only acknowledged this poem in a letter to Edmund Gosse, written just two months before his death: 'Yes, "Alaric at Rome" is my Rugby prize poem, and I think it is better than my Oxford one, "Cromwell"; only you will see that I had been very much reading "Childe Harold"' (Letters of Matthew Arnold, edited by Cecil Y. Lang, 6: 346).
Little is known of Edward Armitage, the recipient of this copy, beyond the fact that he was a fellow pupil at Rugby. (The upper corner is inscribed "E. Armitage from the author"). Thomas Smart, Arnold's bibliographer, knew only of Edmund Gosse's copy of this anonymous work, but Wise claimed to know of ten examples - allowing him to pass off copies of his 1893 reprint as genuine.
Before its purchase in 1905, an earlier owner asked Dodd, Mead & Company to authenticate Arnold's handwriting on this copy. Luther S. Livingston gave this guarantee from 'Mr. Dodd' also supplied a transcription of a letter from the English firm from which they had acquired it. Besides further authenticating the inscription, this pointed out that Thomas Wise possessed 'a very interesting document -- the Master of Rugby's report of the said Armitage's studentship, &c. at Rugby -- signed "T. Arnold" ... He [Wise] wished very much to buy the "Alaric" as his own has no cover & is not quite (tho' very near) as large, & it of course has no presentation inscription.'
The most desirable surviving copy of Matthew Arnold's first publication, printed when he was seventeen. Presentation copy, inscribed by Arnold on the front wrapper, "E. Armitage Esqr. from the Author." Only one other inscribed copy is known, at the Morgan Library.
Provenance
Dr. J.B. Clemens of New Jersey (two typed letters to Clemens, as prospective purchaser of the book, from Arthur S. Livingston of Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, dated 17 August and 7 September, 1905, loosely inserted); sold Parke-Bernet, New York, 8 January 1945, lot 57 for $400; Exhibited: Grolier Club (1950s exhibition card describing it as "the only presentation copy known"); Sold Halsted B. Vander Poel, Christie's, London March 3, 2004, lot 127.
Literature
Ashley I, p. 8: 'holds a high place in the rank of modern poetical rarities'; Hayward 255; Smart p. 1.