BURNS | Poems, 1787, first Edinburgh edition

From the Library of Christian Heuer

BURNS, ROBERT

Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Edinburgh: Printed for the Author, and sold by William Creech, 1787

8vo, SECOND (first Edinburgh) EDITION (with "skinking" at p.263 and "Boxburgh" rather than "Roxburgh" in the list of subscribers), half-title, stipple engraved portrait frontispiece, contemporary calf with repeating lyre motif gilt on spine, marbled endpapers, very minor spotting, offsetting from portrait, rubbed

Although the first edition of Burns' Poems had sold out within a month, delivering a profit of £50 to the author, the publisher John Wilson was unwilling to issue a second edition unless Burns advanced the £27 needed to purchase the paper for a larger run of 1000 copies. As a result, the second edition (including 22 new poems) was published by William Creech in Edinburgh. Most of the 3,000 copies went to the 38 page list of subscribers.

LITERATURE:

ESTC T125274

PROVENANCE:

Middleton Park, book stamp on front free endpaper

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