first edition Original reddish-brown blindstamped cloth
1839 · Boston:
by Spenser, Edmund
Boston: Charles C. Little & J. Brown, 1839 First American edition. Includes "An Essay on the Life and Writings of Edmund Spenser" by Philip Masterman. Original reddish-brown blindstamped cloth. Five volumes, twelvemo. Intermittent light foxing, spines a bit faded, minor shelfwear. Old bookseller's label ("Wm. C. Taber, New-Bedford") in each volume. A very good set. The introduction is "a very valuable addition to the stores of literary criticiswm, exhibiting a nice discrimination of the characteristics of the poem, with a general sensibility of its extraordinary beauties" (W.H. Prescott, quoted in Lowndes.). (Inventory #: 13498)