WILLIAM GODWIN: HIS FRIENDS AND CONTEMPORARIES

London: Henry S. King & Co, 1876. FIRST EDITION. 202 x 140 mm. (8 x 5 5/8"). Two volumes..
Attractive half calf over marbled boards, raised bands, spines gilt in compartments with floral sprig centerpiece, two maroon morocco labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. With frontispiece portraits of Godwin (vol. I) and Mary Wollstonecraft (vol. II), two facsimiles of letters, and two wood-engraved vignettes. Front pastedowns with engraved pictorial bookplate of Louis V. Ledoux, signed "Charlotte A. Morton fecit 1901." NCBEL II, 1252. ◆Spines gently sunned and with a couple of small abrasions, faint shelf wear, occasional mild foxing, but still a fine set, clean and fresh internally, with few signs of use, inside or out.

This is an appealing copy of the first full biography of writer and political philosopher William Godwin (1756-1836); though prominent in literary and political circles of his day, he is now better remembered as the husband of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, the father of "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley, and the father-in-law of Romantic poet Percy Shelley. According to DNB, biographer Kegan Paul (1828-1902) "drew extensively on Godwin's manuscripts, and served both to remind his public of Godwin's literary and philosophical standing, and to introduce them to the less savoury details of his later wranglings with Shelley and others." These "wranglings" almost always involved money: after his politics fell out of fashion, Godwin struggled to support his large family. He had hoped that relief might come from his daughter's alliance with Shelley, but the poet's wealthy father was scandalized by his romantic entanglements and cut off funds. Our set has seen little if any use, and makes a most attractive appearance on the shelf..